RENOWNED Huddersfield musician Marjorie Stewart Glendinning has died.

She was born in 1915 and died on January 12, aged 96.

She was married in 1936 to Edward Glendinning, a director of Glendinning Bros woollen manufacturers on Leeds Road, Huddersfield.

Midge, as she was known to her friends, was passionate about music and she learned the violin with the famous teacher, Arthur Willie-Kaye. Later on in her life she played with Rudolph Botta, of the Royal Northern College of Music.

In the early days she played second violin in a quartet with Margaret Binns and Daisy Kaye, Arthur’s wife. It was Margaret who encouraged her to join the Huddersfield Philharmonic Orchestra as deputy leader and she subsequently led the orchestra for six years.

She also had her own quartet drawn from members of the Phil.

For many years Midge ran the Huddersfield Music Society singlehandedly, remaining on the committee until very recently and hosting countless committee meetings.

She also entertained and hosted many artists from the concerts, becoming close friends with some of them. She even played with them informally on occasion, a great thrill for her!

Lucy Gould, of the Gould trio, was a close friend and her suggestion for the trio to provide the entertainment for Midge’s 90th birthday party made the occasion highly special and memorable.

Her greatest joy was playing and listening to string quartets with her many friends.

Even when she herself could no longer play, Midge continued to welcome amateur, and the occasional professional player into her home in the most recent years, usually to play with her daughter Alison, whose cello playing was a source of great pride and pleasure to her.

Midge was immensely enthusiastic and informed on the subject of classical music, and she had an exhaustive knowledge of the string quartet repertoire, her particular favourite.

She attended many concerts, which included becoming a subscriber to the Halifax Music Society and the RNCM chamber concerts, which she attended with her longtime friend, Paul Michelson.

A member of the Huddersfield Book Society, Midge was widely-read with an extensive knowledge of literature and poetry.

She also enjoyed playing bridge regularly with her friends.

She loved French culture, being fluent in both French and German and having spent long periods in France. She was widely travelled and had visited far-flung places such as the Caribbean, the Galapagos Islands, India and Israel.

Midge continued to make new friends all her life, many of whom came regularly to the house to talk and play. She was a perfectionist in whatever she undertook, being an excellent cook and needlewoman.

She was a talented and generous lady in every sense of the word, and will be greatly missed by her friends and family. She leaves two daughters, Alison and Frances, three grandchildren and many nephews and nieces.

A funeral service is at Huddersfield Crematorium on Monday, January 23, at 2.30pm.