Sybil Eaton

Sybil Eaton (17 February 1897 – 6 September 1989) was a British violinist and violin teacher. Eaton was a performer and coordinator for the Music Travellers, a wartime initiative created by the Council for the Encouragement of Music and the Arts.

Life Sybil Evelyn Eaton was born in Stamford, Lincolnshire on 17 February 1897. She began learning piano aged six, and the violin aged eight.

Between 1920 and 1923, ill health caused Eaton to retire from public work. Charles Villiers Stanford, Herbert Howells, Armstrong Gibbs, Pamela Hind O'Malley, and Gerald Finzi all composed pieces for her.

Wartime and The Music Travellers Eaton was involved in the Rural Music School movement founded by Mary Ibberson in 1929, including with the Wiltshire Rural Music School During World War II, the movement helped to inspire the introduction by the Council for the Encouragement of Music and the Arts of the "Music Travellers" - intended to raise morale among the British population. Under the auspices of the Rural Music Schools, the Music Travellers were led by Eaton. Eaton wrote of her disappointment at the end of the project:The cut in money for direct concerts is a shattering blow... Now, having created the demand, mobilised the enthusiasts and built up audiences, the cut has come, without warning... It will strain all our loyalty to CEMA to explain the sudden change without causing bitter resentment, and it will take all our courage to go on, refusing people we have taught to ask, breaking promises wholesale, with our dream of taking music to our whole region shattered. Ralph Vaughan Williams and Steuart Wilson spoke in praise of Eaton's work for music during the war. Sybil Eaton died on 6 September 1989. A collection of her papers were donated to the Dartington Hall Archive, and are held by the Devon Heritage Centre.