CARROLL, Ida

Ida Gertrude Carroll was a British composer, double bassist, music educator and administrator. She was born on 1 December 1905 in West Didsbury, Manchester. Her father was Walter Carroll, a composer and influential music teacher, who gave her some of her earliest musical instruction. She initially studied piano at Hilda Collens’s Matthay School of Music, later known as the Northern School of Music. When the school orchestra needed a double bassist, she took up the instrument that would become central to both her performing and compositional work.
Carroll devoted much of her professional life to music education in Manchester. She served as principal of the Northern School of Music from 1958 until the early 1970s and played an important role in its merger with the Royal Manchester College of Music. The merger led to the establishment of the Royal Northern College of Music in 1973, where she became the first Dean of Management. She retired from that position in 1976.
As a composer, Carroll wrote principally for double bass and piano. Her works were conceived both as concert pieces and as accessible educational repertoire, combining melodic writing with the technical possibilities of the instrument. Her principal compositions include Five Simple Pieces (1951), comprising a Prelude, Courante, Gavotte, Sarabande and Gigue; Three Pieces (1960), consisting of a Fantasia in E minor, Toccata and Bolero; and Five National Dances (1987), which includes a Polish mazurka, French bourrée, German waltz, Italian tarantella and Cuban rumba. Several of these pieces have entered the standard teaching repertoire for the double bass and have appeared in British music examination syllabuses.
In addition to her work as a composer and educator, Carroll performed as a freelance double bassist and was active in numerous British musical organizations. She served as president of the Incorporated Society of Musicians in 1976 and supported institutions including Chetham’s School of Music, the European String Teachers Association and the National Youth Orchestra. In recognition of her contribution to British musical life, she was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1964. She died in Manchester on 9 September 1995.