One summer evening when English cello player Beatrice Harrison was practicing in her garden, she was joined by a visitor she did not expect.
The visitor was a nightingale. The small brown bird sang together with Harrison’s cello music, and the birdsong sounded like the piece she was playing. For the next few evenings, her visitor kept coming back, sometimes with several of its friends. Harrison decided that more people should hear the little singers.
So, on May 19, 1924, Harrison worked with the BBC, the UK’s national TV and radio station, and played in her garden. At first, the artist was playing alone. Fifteen minutes before the end of her playing, the nightingales began to sing with the cello.
The nightingale show was popular with radio listeners. It was repeated the next week, and for the next twelve years Harrison played on the radio with her garden friends. During this time, she got 50,000 fan letters. People called her “the Nightingale Lady.”