14 January – Ralph Vaughan Williams's Sinfonia Antarctica is given its first performance in Manchester.[1]
3 February – Kathleen Ferrier, already suffering from terminal cancer, gives a critically acclaimed performance on the first night of a new production of Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice at the Royal Opera House.[2]
6 February – During the second performance of Orfeo at Covent Garden, Kathleen Ferrier's left femur gives way; she completes the performance before going to hospital for treatment.[3]
The coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, William McKie, who had been in charge of music at the royal wedding in 1947, is organist.[5] In addition to traditional music, such as Handel's "Zadok the Priest", Hubert Parry's "I was glad" and Samuel Sebastian Wesley's "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace", specially commissioned works performed at the ceremony include Ralph Vaughan Williams's "O Taste and See", William Walton's "Orb and Sceptre", Arthur Bliss's "Processional", Arnold Bax's "Coronation March", and the Canadian composer Healy Willan's anthem "O Lord our Governor".
9 June – Kathleen Ferrier writes to the secretary of the Royal Philharmonic Society, thanking them for the award of the Gold Medal; it is thought to be the last letter she ever signed in person.[7]
19 September – Sir Hubert Parry's 1916 setting of William Blake's "Jerusalem" first appears as a permanent feature of the Last Night of the Proms (televised).[8]
19 October – Opening of the Covent Garden opera season, with a production of Wagner's Die Walküre.
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