Doreen Carwithen

Despite gender discrimination, Doreen Carwithen became a significant composer of orchestral music, chamber music, and film music in the middle of the 20th century. In 1947, Carwithen's overture ODTAA (One Damn Thing After Another, the title coming from a novel) was premiered by the London Philharmonic Orchestra under conductor Adrian Boult. One of her first film scores was for Harvest from the Wilderness (1948), and she went on to write scores for some 35 films. She married William Alwyn in 1975 and began using the name, Mary Alwyn. After William's death in 1985, she taught at the Royal Academy of Music and continued to tend to William's legacy. She also took up her own music, which had been largely forgotten. She died on January 5, 2003. A Doreen Carwithen Music Festival was organized in the village of Haddenham for her 100th birthday.