1906 in British music

Events

• 18 January - The first performance of Charles Villiers Stanford’s Symphony No 6 in Eb major takes place at the Queen’s Hall with the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by the composer.
• 25 January - The Kruse Quartet, supplemented by other players, give the first performance of Charles Villiers Stanford‘s Nonet at the Aeolian Hall in London.
• 1 March - Nicholas Gatty‘s one-act opera Greysteel has its premiere in Sheffield during the University Opera week.
• 29 March - The first performance of James Friskin‘s Quintet by the Cathie Quartet takes place at the Aeolian Hall in London.
• 24 April - The winning three compositions of the 1905 Cobbett Competition for chamber music are performed by The Saunders Quartet at Stationers Hall: William Hurlstone‘s Phantasie for String Quartet ; Haydn Wood‘s Phantasy Quartet ; Frank Bridge‘s Phantasie Quartet.
• 14 May - The first complete performance in the UK of Coppelia by Delibes is seen at the Empire Theatre, with Adeline Genée in the lead role.
• 14 June - The first performance of Variations on an African Air by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor takes place at a London Philharmonic Society concert, Queen's Hall, conducted by Frederick Cowen.
• 23 August - The Norfolk Rhapsody No 1 in E minor by Ralph Vaughan Williams is performed for the first time at the Proms in London.
• August – Mary Davies is principal soloist at the National Eisteddfod of Wales.
• Summer – Australian composer Percy Grainger begins collecting English folk songs with the aid of a phonograph.
• 3 October
• *Hans Richter conducts the first performance of The Bells, a poem for chorus and orchestra by Joseph Holbrooke, at the Birmingham Music Festival.
• *Edward Elgar's oratorio The Kingdom, Op. 51, is first performed at the Birmingham Music Festival, conducted by the composer with soloists Agnes Nicholls, Muriel Foster, John Coates and William Higley.
• 25 October - Henry Wood conducts the first performance of Joseph Holbrooke’s orchestral suite Les Hommages at Queen’s Hall.
• 14 November -The Vicar of Wakefield, a light opera by Liza Lehmann, is produced in London.
• 15 November - Cyril Scott's orchestral and choral Christmas Overture is performed for the first time by the London Symphony Orchestra.
• date unknown
• *Operatic soprano Maggie Teyte makes her public début at a Mozart festival in Paris.
• *16-year-old Phyllis Dare takes over the leading role in The Belle of Mayfair at the Vaudeville Theatre when Edna May leaves suddenly because of a disagreement with the producer.
• *Composer Lawrence Wright opens a music shop in his home city of Leicester.

Popular music

• "Ye Watchers and Ye Holy Ones", with words by Athelstan Riley, first published in The English Hymnal by Oxford University Press, edited by Percy Dearmer and Ralph Vaughan Williams.

Classical music: new works

• Granville Bantock – Sappho, nine fragments with a Prelude
• Rutland Boughton – Love in Spring, symphonic poem
• Frank Bridge
• *Three Idylls for String Quartet
• *String Quartet No. 1 in E minor "Bologna"
• Katharine Emily Eggar – Piano Quartet in D minor and major
• Edward Elgar – ''The Kingdom (oratorio)''

Opera

• Dame Ethel Smyth & Henry Brewster – ''The Wreckers''

Musical theatre

• 20 June – See See, with music by Sidney Jones, book by Charles H. Brookfield, and lyrics by Adrian Ross, opens at the Prince of Wales Theatre; it runs for 152 performances.

Births

• 31 January – Benjamin Frankel, composer
• 19 February – Grace Williams, composer
• 13 March – Dave Kaye, pianist
• 22 April – Eric Fenby, composer, conductor, pianist, organist and teacher, amanuensis of Frederick Delius
• 9 July – Elisabeth Lutyens, composer
• 24 August – Walter Braithwaite, composer
• 4 November – Arnold Cooke, composer
• 23 November – Mervyn Roberts, Welsh composer

Deaths

• 9 May – Helen Lemmens-Sherrington, concert and operatic soprano
• 14 June – George Herbert, organist and composer of hymn tunes
• 30 December – Eugène Goossens, père, Belgian-born conductor