Editing Rebecca Clarke (composer) (section)

{{short description|English composer and violist (1886–1979)}}
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[[File:ClarkeViola.jpg|thumb|upright=1|Clarke with a viola in 1919]]

'''Rebecca Helferich Clarke''' (27 August 1886 – 13 October 1979) was a British classical composer and [[violist]]. Internationally renowned as a viola virtuoso, she also became one of the first female professional orchestral players in London.<ref name=broad>{{cite book|last=Broad|first= Leah|title= Quartet: How Four Women Changed the Musical World|publisher=Faber and Faber |year=2023}}</ref>

Rebecca Clarke had a German mother and an American father, and spent substantial periods of her life in the United States, where she permanently settled after World War II. She was born in [[Harrow, London|Harrow]] and studied at the [[Royal Academy of Music]] and [[Royal College of Music]] in London. Stranded in the United States at the outbreak of [[World War II]], she married composer and pianist [[James Friskin]] in 1944. Clarke died at her home in New York at the age of 93.

Although Clarke's output was not large, her work was recognised for its compositional skill and artistic power. Some of her works have yet to be published; those that were published in her lifetime were largely forgotten after she stopped composing. Scholarship and interest in her compositions revived in 1976. The Rebecca Clarke Society was established in 2000 to promote the study and performance of her music.