By Albert Sammons
Very few artists have made their way into the front rank with so little help or guidance as Sammons. His father, an enthusiastic amateur violinist, was his first teacher, and, as a youngster, he had a few lessons from Saunders and Woist-Hill. Otherwise, he has taught himself, with a thoroughness and a complete success which academic training rarely achieves. His style is modelled on no one school or method; he has evolved it for himself, solving all its technical problems on a personal and practical basis of his own, and the result is as eminently successful as it is individual. His playing on a modern violin, when he might have his pick of the best old instruments available, is one instance of the courage of his own convictions, backed as they are by a sound and comprehensive knowledge. He had a full share of early hardships and musical drudgery before he won any recognition of his outstanding gifts; his first big chance came when Sir Thomas Beecham heard him play a concerto with a hotel orchestra. He was then twenty-two, and for ten years had been earning his own livelihood in conditions which only the stoutest heart and the truest artistic ideals could have survived; some years of orchestral leadership and ensemble playing followed, at home and abroad. But through all that hard work he was steadily making his way to the position he has held ever since the War, in the forefront of the violinists of our time.
