Antonio Brosa was a Spanish violinist (1894-1979). He was a great friend of Benjamin Britten

Benjamin Britten

Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten, OM CH was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He showed talent from an early age, and first came to public attention with the a cappella choral work A Boy Was Born in 1934. With the premiere of his opera Peter Grimes in 1945, he leapt to...

, who consulted him on the difficulties of Britten's concerto. He premiered Benjamin Britten's violin concerto op. 15 at Carnegie Hall

Carnegie Hall

Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....

 on 28th March 1940, playing on his Vesuvius Stradivarius of 1727 with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, with John Barbirolli

John Barbirolli

Sir John Barbirolli, CH was an English conductor and cellist. Born in London, of Italian and French parentage, he grew up in a family of professional musicians. His father and grandfather were violinists...

 conducting. This performance launched his career as a solo violinist. The Vesuvius Strad later belonged to Remo Lauricella

Remo Lauricella

Remo Lauricella was a British composer and concert violinist.He was born in London in 1912, his parents hailing from Catania in Sicily. Lauricella’s father Pietro, a successful tailor with a fashionable clientele, gave him his first violin lessons. He obtained a scholarship to the Royal College...

, UK based concert violinist/composer

Orchestral Associations

He was the leader of a famous string quartet of his own name. He disbanded this quartet in 1939 and he played modern works of Michael Berkeley

Michael Berkeley

Michael Berkeley is a British composer and broadcaster on music.-Early life:His father was the composer Sir Lennox Berkeley...

, Edmund Rubbra, and Michael Tippett

Michael Tippett

Sir Michael Kemp Tippett OM CH CBE was an English composer.In his long career he produced a large body of work, including five operas, three large-scale choral works, four symphonies, five string quartets, four piano sonatas, concertos and concertante works, song cycles and incidental music...

 He was also the leader of the Pro Arte String Quartet in US. Brosa was fluent in 5 languages.