Charles Avison (1709-1770)
Charles Avison who was born and lived in Newcastle upon Tyne was the most prolific English concerto composer of the eighteenth century.
Biography
After studying at Trinity College Cambridge the Reverend Edward Moises was made Master of the Royal Grammar School in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1787. Moises joined the founding committee of the town’s Literary and Philosophical Society where he proposed a library should be established for the members. However, in 1809 he resigned owing to differences with Reverend William Turner over the introduction of public lectures which he considered a distraction from what he believed to be the society’s purpose. In 1792 his grammar of the Persian language called The Persian Interpreter was published by Solomon and Sarah Hodgson in Newcastle and he assisted with the Arabic typesetting on Joseph Dacre Carlyle’s Arabic Bible which was published by Sarah Hodgson in 1811.