Madeleine Dring

Rarely played in the years after her death, the music of Madeleine Dring has been rediscovered in the 21st century. Dring had a distinctive style that drew on late Romanticism, neoclassicism, popular music, and jazz. By the late '30s, she was writing substantial works, including the Fantasy Sonata in One Movement; that work remained unpublished until 1948, and Dring's music attracted little attention despite its evident originality. In 1947, Dring married London Symphony oboist Roger Lord, and the couple had one son, Jeremy. Dring wrote a good deal of chamber music, two ballets, and one opera, Cupboard Love. Dring died in London on March 26, 1977. For some years, her music received little attention, and her husband funded a biography, Ro Hancock-Child's Madeleine Dring: Her Music, Her Life, to draw greater exposure to it. By the early 2020s, more than 90 of Dring's works had been recorded.