Kenneth Essex

From The Strad:

London viola player Kenneth Essex has died at the age of 101. He enjoyed a performance career of almost 60 years, going on to earn attention in the last years of his life for his fundraising efforts during the pandemic.

Essex studied viola at the Royal Academy of Music before serving in the Royal Navy during the Second World War. After this, he embarked on a prolific playing career, where he performed with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Boyd Neel Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Hurwitz and Amadeus Quartets, before becoming principal viola with the London Symphony Orchestra.

He left the LSO to go freelance, performing with the Aeolian, Delme and Gabrieli Quartets in expanded quintet and sextet instrumentations. He played with the Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields and embarked on a career as a film, TV and popular music session musician. He is renowned for performing on the title music for the TV show Fawlty Towers, the title music of the film The French Lieutenant’s Woman, which features a viola solo, and incidental music for Last of the Summer Wine. In a statement for his 101st birthday challenge charity fundraiser, for which he aimed to raise money for Hospice Aid UK, Essex said, ’Many people will not know me, but they have certainly heard my playing!’  As such, he performed on The Beatles track Yesterday, about which he reported, ’It was pretty simple stuff…It took so little time we only got a half-session fee of five guineas’ […]

Kenneth Essex played viola on The Beatles’ 1965 track “Yesterday” and also on their 1967 song “Hello, Goodbye.”

Recording sessions Kenneth Essex participated in

Albums, EPs & singles which Kenneth Essex contributed to

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