1908 in British music

• 26 March – The first public performance of York Bowen's Viola Concerto is given by Lionel Tertis at the Wigmore Hall.{{cite web|url=https://www.academia.edu/5753870|title=York Bowen Viola Concerto (1907) The Centenary of a Minor Masterpiece|website=www.academia.edu|author=John France|date=10 February 2007|access-date=15 April 2018}}
• 31 July – Frederick Septimus Kelly wins a gold medal for Great Britain as a member of the winning crew in the eights at the 1908 Summer Olympics in London.[https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/ke/frederick-kelly-1.html Frederick Kelly] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150801160037/http://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/ke/frederick-kelly-1.html |date=1 August 2015 }}. Sports Reference Olympic Sports
• 3 December – Edward Elgar's Symphony No. 1 receives its première at the Free Trade Hall in Manchester, performed by the Hallé Orchestra and conducted by Hans Richter.Reed, W H. Elgar, J M Dent and Sons Ltd, London, 1943. p 97
• 7 December – Four days after its première, Elgar's Symphony No. 1 is performed at the Queen's Hall by the London Symphony Orchestra, again conducted by Hans Richter.*Kennedy, Michael. Elgar Orchestral Music. BBC Publications, London, 1970. p 53.
• date unknown – Alexander Mackenzie becomes President of the International Musical Society.[http://www.ukwhoswho.com/view/article/oupww/whowaswho/U213304 "Mackenzie, Sir Alexander Campbell"], Who Was Who, A & C Black, 1920–2008; online edition, Oxford University Press, 2007, accessed 28 September 2009

• "Has Anybody Here Seen Kelly?" ("Kelly from the Isle of Man") by Clarence Wainwright Murphy & Will Letters
• "I Hear You Calling Me" by Harold Lake & Charles MarshallWestern Daily Press, "Romance and Tears of a Famous Ballad, Author of 'Hear You Calling Me' Dead", 5 Aug 1933, p. 9
• "The Outlaw" by William Wallace

• York Bowen – Viola Concerto in C minor
• Henry Walford Davies – Solemn Melody for organ
• Harry Evans – Dafydd ap Gwilym (cantata)[http://www.liverpool-welsh.co.uk/harry_evans.htm Lecture on Harry Evans (Merseyside Welsh Heritage Society, November 12th 2011), by Professor Huw Rees, President, Liverpool Welsh Choral Union]
• Hamilton Harty – Violin Concerto
• Joseph Hinton – L'allegro
• Alice Verne-Bredt – Phantasie Piano Trio and Phantasie Piano Quartet

• A Welsh Sunset by Philip Michael FaradaySavoy Theatre. "A Welsh Sunset", The Times, 18 July 1908, p. 10

• 25 April – Havana, with book by George Grossmith, Jr. and Graham Hill, music by Leslie Stuart, lyrics by Adrian Ross and additional lyrics by George Arthurs, opens at the Gaiety Theatre, London, starring Evie Greene, W. H. Berry, Lawrence Grossmith and Mabel Philipson.[http://library.kent.ac.uk/library/special/icons/playbills/playdat1.htm Cast and productions details] at The Play Pictorial website (1902–1910) of the Templeman Library at the University of Kent at Canterbury
• 3 September – King of Cadonia, with book by Frederick Lonsdale, lyrics by Adrian Ross and Arthur Wimperis and music by Sidney Jones and Frederick Rosse, opens at the Prince of Wales Theatre in London, where it runs for 333 performances.[http://www.musicaltheatreguide.com/composers/jones/king_of_cadonia.htm Synopsis, list of roles and list of musical numbers]

• 12 January – Joan Mary Last, music educator, author and composer (died 2002){{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IvoQQU1QL_QC&dq=Joan+Mary+Last+composer&pg=PA268|title=The Norton/Grove dictionary of women composers|first1=Julie Anne|last1=Sadie|first2=Rhian|last2=Samuel|year=1994|accessdate=30 December 2010}}
• 28 January – Jimmy Shand, accordionist and bandleader (died 2000)
• 29 February – A. L. Lloyd, folk song collector (died 1982)
• 18 March – Ivor Moreton, singer, composer and pianist (died 1984)
• 25 March – Bridget D'Oyly Carte, head of D'Oyly Carte Opera Company (died 1985)
• 10 July – Donald Peers, singer (died 1973)
• 18 July – Barry Gray, television composer (died 1984)
• 19 October
• Spike Hughes, jazz musician, composer and music journalist (died 1987)Spike Hughes, Opening Bars – Beginning an Autobiography (Pilot Press Ltd, London, 1946)
• Sydney MacEwan, singer and priest (died 1991)
• 21 October – Howard Ferguson, composer and musicologist (died 1999)
• 17 December – William Brocklesby Wordsworth, English/Scottish composer and pianist (died 1988)
• date unknown – Jeannie Robertson, folk singer (died 1975)

• 2 March – Walter Slaughter, conductor and composer, 48
• 12 March – Clara Novello, soprano, 89

• 1908 in the United Kingdom

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