Rosemary Glyde

Who was Rosemary Glyde?

Rosemary Glyde was an American violist and composer. Focusing on expanding the limited repertory for solo viola, she wrote and transcribed many works for that instrument, including Sergei Rachmaninoff's Cello Sonata and Johann Sebastian Bach's Cello Suites for viola. She founded the New York Viola Society in 1992.

Glyde was born in Auburn, Alabama in 1948 to Edgar Glyde, a violist on faculty at the Alabama Polytechnic Institute, and Dorothy Glyde, a cellist. Glyde was trained as soprano and violinist, studying under her father, a graduate of the Royal Academy of Music, from the age of four. While a student at Auburn High School, she was concert mistress of the Sewanee Summer Music Center Orchestra, studying with Julius Hegyi. Before her graduation from Auburn High in 1966, she was offered a scholarship to The Hartt School to train under Raphael Bronstein, with whom she continued training at the Manhattan School of Music. She began her master's work at the Juilliard School under Dorothy DeLay, but switched to viola and moved into the doctoral program studying with Lillian Fuchs.