Elizabeth Maconchy (1984)

The composition of classical music has been almost entirely a male preserve. In the late 1920's, when Elizabeth Maconchy was turned down for the Mendelssohn Scholarship, she was told it didn't matter because "you will only get married and never write another note." She did get married, to William Le Fanu in 1930, the same year that her piece The Land was performed at the Proms. Neither severe illness nor bringing up two children has stopped her writing many notes since then.