Atarah Ben-Tovim

Atarah Ben-Tovim, MBE (born 1940) is a British flautist and children's concert presenter.

Born in Wales,[1] Ben-Tovim played her first television concert live at the Royal Albert Hall, at the age of fourteen. She was principal flautist with the National Youth Orchestra, and then from 1963-75 principal flautist with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. She left the RLPO to found Atarah's Band in 1975, a group which sought to improve children's experiences with classical music. Ben-Tovim was awarded the MBE in 1980 for her work in this field. During its lifetime, the band played to over three million people.

She has guested on several UK television and radio shows, including Pebble Mill at One on BBC TV, The John Dunn Show, Start the Week and Kaleidoscope.

In the late 1980s, BBC Radio Three made the programme Atarah's Music Box, all about children and music. Omnibus devoted a programme to her work, as did Blue Peter and Magpie. Her own television series, Atarah's Music, aimed at primary school children, aired in 1982.[2]

Together with Douglas Boyd she published The Right Instrument for Your Child[3] followed by You Can Make Music!.[4] Both books concentrated on helping aspiring music students to choose the best instrument for their particular attributes. Ben-Tovim & Boyd undertook research with thousands of students over a period of ten years in which they followed the successes and failures of these students, and examined the relationship between their physical, emotional and intellectual attributes and the instruments which they chose.

Ben-Tovim's musical stories for little children in Rub-a-Dub Tub on Sunday mornings ran for over two years. Her radio series have been broadcast on several local independent radio stations including Birmingham's BRMB, Liverpool's Radio City and Radio Merseyside, Manchester's Radio Piccadilly, and Preston's Red Rose Radio.

She currently resides in France, where she teaches and holds workshops for budding flautists and clarinetists.

References
  1. GRO Birth records, Abergavenny, October–December 1940
  2. "A FOR ANDROMEDA to ALPHABET ZOO". Archived from the original on 5 July 2008. Retrieved 16 June 2008.
  3. Ben-Tovim, Atarah; Boyd, Douglas (1985). The Right Instrument For Your Child. Gollancz. ISBN 978-0575035478.
  4. Ben-Tovim, Atarah; Boyd, Douglas (1 September 1986). You Can Make Music!. Gollancz. ISBN 978-0575037830.
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