E B K (Kitty) Gregorson ARCM MBE 1903-2004
Photo of Kitty Gregorson at her 100th birthday celebrations © Maggie Carter
Music teacher who inspired generations
Kitty Gregorson was the elder daughter of an Edinburgh solicitor and Town Councillor, distantly connected to Rob Roy McGregor, of which she was quietly very proud. Her formal schooling was patchy, yet this never restricted an articulate and intelligent woman who throughout her life enjoyed exploring all subjects from wildlife to politics.
Kitty showed musical talent from an early age and in 1922 went to study at the Royal College of Music. Sadly this, and her prospects of a promising career as a concert 'cellist, ended abruptly with her mother's terminal illness. She returned to Edinburgh to look after her father and sister. Her loss was the enormous gain of generations of young musicians.
Kitty continued to perform but it was 'cello teaching, and her encouragement of all young musicians, which became Kitty's life's work for the next eight decades. Many of her former pupils have gone on to pursue successful careers in music. She helped found the Edinburgh Youth Orchestra, later becoming Honorary Vice President, and was offered honorary life membership of the annual Edinburgh Competition Festival.
Awarded an MBE in 1985 for services to music, Kitty protested with typical modesty that she was accepting it on behalf of all Edinburgh 'cellists. The Thanksgiving Service following her death two weeks short of her 101st birthday – a musical celebration of which Kitty would have been proud - may have seemed like the final chapter of an extraordinary life. But her legacy lives on through her many friends and pupils, who continue to play, teach or simply derive great pleasure from the music she taught them all to love.