Geraldine Mucha

Geraldine Thomson Mucha (5 July 1917 – 12 October 2012) was a Scottish composer. She was born in London and studied at the Royal Academy of Music. She married the Czech writer Jiří Mucha, son of the painter Alphonse Mucha, and in 1945 moved to Prague. She lived there for the greater part of the next sixty years. Geraldine Mucha was born in London on 5 July 1917. She was the only child of Marcus Thomson (sometimes spelled Thomsen) who came from Glasgow and of Maisie Evans, a New Zealander. Marcus Thomson studied at the Royal Academy of Music (R.A.M.) in London between 1902 and 1906 and became a successful baritone singer. In 1920 he was appointed as a Singing Professor at the R.A.M. where he remained on the staff until the 1950s. Maisie Evans studied music in Leipzig and during the First World War appeared in a leading role in the long running musical success Chu Chin Chow (His Majesty's Theatre, London, 1916) and later on in Nigel Playfair’s famous production of The Beggar’s Opera (Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith, 1920). Mucha herself showed an interest in music from a very early age and her father, impressed by her improvisations at the piano, taught her to read and write music before she went to school. Between 1929 and 1934 Mucha attended Frognall School; a private establishment in North London much favoured by actors and musicians for their daughters‘ education. It was here that she became friends with Maeve Bax, daughter of the well known composer Arnold Bax (1885–1953). His interest was caught by Mucha's musical talent and he played through her early works and gave her advice. She also took lessons in harmony with her father's colleague, the composer Benjamin Dale (1885–1943). She was a keen concert–goer and often attended the opera with her mother and developed a passion for the ballet. In the autumn term of 1935 Mucha became a student at the Royal Academy of Music, where she was awarded several scholarships. Her first study was Piano and her second Composition.