Elias Parish Alvars

Elias Parish Alvars, was an English harpist and composer. He was born as Eli Parish in Teignmouth, Devon; his father was a local organist. His baptismal record at St James’s Church, West Teignmouth, reads: "Eli, son of Joseph and Mary Ann Parish". Parish gave his first concert in Totnes in 1818 and in 1820 was sent to London to study with Nicolas-Charles Bochsa. In 1822 he applied to the Royal Academy of Music, where Bochsa had been appointed harp professor, but was not accepted, because he could not afford the tuition fees without a scholarship. He was able to continue his lessons with Bochsa by undertaking teaching and playing at dances. He was also later able to study in Paris, and in 1828 studied music in Florence. At around this time he changed his first name to "Elias"; Parish appears to have used the name "Parish Alvars" from the early 1830s; the origins of the name are not known. In 1836, the first publication of his music by Artaria in Vienna used the name "Elias Parish Alvars", which was subsequently used in all his publications. In 1836 Alvars became first harp at the Vienna Opera. From Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elias_P...) under Creative Commons Attribution CC-BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b...)