1906 in British music

This is a summary of 1906 in music in the United Kingdom.

Events

 * 18 January - The first performance of Charles Villiers Stanford’s Symphony No 6 in Eb major takes place at the Queen’s Hall with the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by the composer.
 * 25 January - The Kruse Quartet, supplemented by other players (including Lionel Tertis), give the first performance of Charles Villiers Stanford‘s Nonet at the Aeolian Hall in London.
 * 1 March - Nicholas Gatty‘s one-act opera Greysteel has its premiere in Sheffield during the University Opera week.
 * 29 March - The first performance of James Friskin‘s Quintet by the Cathie Quartet takes place at the Aeolian Hall in London.
 * 24 April - The winning three compositions of the 1905 Cobbett Competition for chamber music are performed by The Saunders Quartet at Stationers Hall: William Hurlstone‘s Phantasie for String Quartet (first prize); Haydn Wood‘s Phantasy Quartet (second prize); Frank Bridge‘s Phantasie Quartet (third prize).
 * 14 May - The first complete performance in the UK of Coppelia by Delibes is seen at the Empire Theatre, with Adeline Genée in the lead role.
 * 14 June - The first performance of Variations on an African Air by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor takes place at a London Philharmonic Society concert, Queen's Hall, conducted by Frederick Cowen.
 * 23 August - The Norfolk Rhapsody No 1 in E minor by Ralph Vaughan Williams is performed for the first time at the Proms in London.
 * August – Mary Davies is principal soloist at the National Eisteddfod of Wales.
 * Summer – Australian composer Percy Grainger begins collecting English folk songs with the aid of a phonograph.
 * 3 October
 * Hans Richter conducts the first performance of The Bells, a poem for chorus and orchestra by Joseph Holbrooke, at the Birmingham Music Festival.
 * Edward Elgar's oratorio The Kingdom, Op. 51, is first performed at the Birmingham Music Festival, conducted by the composer with soloists Agnes Nicholls, Muriel Foster, John Coates and William Higley.
 * 25 October - Henry Wood conducts the first performance of Joseph Holbrooke’s orchestral suite Les Hommages at Queen’s Hall.
 * 14 November -The Vicar of Wakefield (Goldsmith), a light opera by Liza Lehmann, is produced in London.
 * 15 November - Cyril Scott's orchestral and choral Christmas Overture is performed for the first time by the London Symphony Orchestra.
 * date unknown
 * Operatic soprano Maggie Teyte makes her public début at a Mozart festival in Paris.
 * 16-year-old Phyllis Dare takes over the leading role in The Belle of Mayfair at the Vaudeville Theatre when Edna May leaves suddenly because of a disagreement with the producer.
 * Composer Lawrence Wright opens a music shop in his home city of Leicester.

Popular music

 * "Ye Watchers and Ye Holy Ones" (hymn), with words by Athelstan Riley, first published in The English Hymnal by Oxford University Press, edited by Percy Dearmer and Ralph Vaughan Williams.

Classical music: new works

 * Granville Bantock – Sappho, nine fragments with a Prelude
 * Rutland Boughton – Love in Spring, symphonic poem
 * Frank Bridge
 * Three Idylls for String Quartet
 * String Quartet No. 1 in E minor "Bologna"
 * Katharine Emily Eggar – Piano Quartet in D minor and major
 * Edward Elgar – The Kingdom (oratorio)

Opera

 * Dame Ethel Smyth & Henry Brewster – The Wreckers

Musical theatre

 * 20 June – See See, with music by Sidney Jones, book by Charles H. Brookfield, and lyrics by Adrian Ross, opens at the Prince of Wales Theatre; it runs for 152 performances.

Births

 * 31 January – Benjamin Frankel, composer (died 1973)
 * 19 February – Grace Williams, composer (died 1977)
 * 13 March – Dave Kaye, pianist (died 1996)
 * 22 April – Eric Fenby, composer, conductor, pianist, organist and teacher, amanuensis of Frederick Delius (died 1997)
 * 9 July – Elisabeth Lutyens, composer (died 2005)
 * 24 August – Walter Braithwaite, composer (died 1991)
 * 4 November – Arnold Cooke, composer (died 1983)
 * 23 November – Mervyn Roberts, Welsh composer

Deaths

 * 9 May – Helen Lemmens-Sherrington, concert and operatic soprano (born 1834)
 * 14 June – George Herbert, organist and composer of hymn tunes (born 1817)
 * 30 December – Eugène Goossens, père, Belgian-born conductor (born 1845)