Early years William Primrose was born in
Glasgow, Scotland to John Primrose and Margaret McInnis (Whiteside) Primrose. He was the oldest of their three children. when Primrose was only 4 years old. Primrose performed his first public concert on the violin in 1916, at the age of 12, playing
Mendelssohn's
Violin Concerto. where he would later be named Fellow. The Primrose Quartet was short-lived, but recorded three sets of commercial 78s for
RCA, along with a few unissued recordings. While performing with the NBC Symphony, Primrose also made recordings with
Jascha Heifetz and
Gregor Piatigorsky. However, they stopped playing together in 1964 due to Primrose's declining hearing and his increased absences due to his teaching career.
Soloist Primrose made his debut as a violin soloist in 1923;That same year, he commissioned a
viola concerto from
Béla Bartók. This was left incomplete at Bartók's death in 1945, and had to wait four years for its completion by
Tibor Serly.Primrose was the soloist in the world premiere performance of the concerto in America, on 2 December 1949, with the
Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra and
Antal Doráti conducting.He gave the European premiere at the Edinburgh Festival in 1950 with Sir John Barbirolli and
The Hallé orchestra. In 1950,
Benjamin Britten wrote for him
Lachrymae based on
the song by Dowland. Primrose was known for his tremendous technique. When he performed
Paganini's violin caprices on viola,
Mischa Elman is said to have exclaimed, "It must be easier on viola!" Primrose wrote many transcriptions and arrangements for viola, often technically dazzling, including "La Campanella" (from Paganini's
second violin concerto) and the famous
Nocturne from
Borodin's
second string quartet, the latter "out of jealousy" for the cello's long melodic lines. He was made a Commander of the
Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1952, in recognition of his musical contributions.
Teacher Primrose was also a teacher during his violist career. He taught in many countries across the world, including the
Curtis Institute of Music in
Philadelphia. He taught at the
University of Southern California from 1961 to 1965 with
Jascha Heifetz. After teaching at USC, he moved to the
Indiana University Jacobs School of Music where he remained from 1965 to 1972. In 1971, Primrose went to the
Tokyo University of the Arts and the
Toho Gakuen School of Music. He occasionally taught at
Juilliard School,
Eastman School of Music In Australia,
Richard Tognetti was one of his students. Primrose was a guest lecturer at
Brigham Young University from 1979 to 1982. Primrose wrote and contributed to several books on viola playing:
Art and Practice of Scale Playing (1954),
Technique is Memory (1960),
Violin and Viola (with Yehudi Menuhin and Denis Stevens, 1976), and
Playing the Viola (1988). Some of his notable students include Canadian violinist
Albert Pratz, former principal of the Los Angeles Philharmonic
Alan de Veritch, the American composer
David Campbell, and
Olympic Music Festival founder and violist
Alan Iglitzin, who was a member of the
Philadelphia String Quartet.. Other notable pupils include, Martha Strongin Katz, Karen Tuttle, Joseph de Pasquale and Cynthia Phelps.
Later years Primrose had developed a hearing problem in 1946 which affected his ability to hear certain notes. He was later diagnosed with cancer in 1977, from which he died in
Provo, Utah on 1 May 1982. • The Primrose Piano Quartet, a British ensemble formed in 2004, is named after him. ==Instruments==