Madeleine Dring

Madeleine Winefride Isabelle Dring (7 September 1923 – 26 March 1977) was an English composer, pianist, singer and actress. She showed talent at an early age and was accepted into the junior department of the Royal College of Music where she began on her tenth birthday. She was offered scholarships for violin and piano and chose violin. She studied piano as a secondary instrument, with RCM students guiding her studies for the first several years.

As part of their training, all of the students performed in the children's theatre under the guidance of Angela Bull. Dring formally began composition studies at the junior department with Stanley Drummond Wolff in 1937, in 1938 with Leslie Fly, and worked with Sir Percy Buck for the next two years. Near the end of her studies, she was assigned to Lilian Gaskell for piano studies. She continued at the Royal College for senior-level studies where her composition teacher was Herbert Howells. She had occasional lessons with Ralph Vaughan Williams (an official substitute for Howells). She dropped the violin study after the death of her instructor, W.H. Reed, at the end of the first year. She focused on piano and composition and studied mime, drama, and singing. Dring's love of theatre and music co-mingled; many of her earliest professional creations were for the stage, radio, and television.

In 1947, she married Roger Lord who was Principal Oboist with London Symphony Orchestra for over thirty years. She composed several works for Roger, including Dances for solo oboe. Soon after her marriage, her first pieces were published with Lengnick and with Oxford (1948). The Lords had one son in 1950.

Dring died in 1977 of a cerebral hemorrhage.