Roy Hart Jesson

Roy Hart was born in London in 1926 to Charles Hart and Ethel (née Crouchman) Jesson. After graduating in 1955 from Indiana University with a PhD in Musicology Roy became an Associate Professor of Music at Richmond University,Virginia until 1961 where he specialised in teaching piano. He then returned to England to became a Professor at the Royal College of Music. He played harpsichord and organ on a number of studio recordings of classical music, especially accompanying cellist Jacqueline du Pré.

After his untimely death in Paris on Oct 8th 1972 his friends established the Roy Jesson Music Prize in his honour to be awarded annually to an outstanding music student at the University of Richmond.