Avison, a pupil of Geminiani was, as New Grove puts it: 'The most important English concerto composer of the 18th century.' As well as orchestrating a number of Scarlatti keyboard works in an ingenious and skilful fashion, he composed some 60 concerti for string orchestra, often striking in their originality and beauty, as well as three volumes of sonatas for violin and harpsichord. At his room in Rosemary Lane, Avison taught the aspiring musicians of Newcastle, but he is most celebrated for his subscription concerts, begun in Newcastle in 1736, and held in the Groat market Assembly Rooms or the Turk's Head until 1813 in an almost unbroken sequence. They were the first of their kind outside London. Parallel concerts were held in Durham with the assistance of Avison's friend John Garth, with whom he edited Marcello's Psalms in 1757.
Visiting virtuosi like Geminiani (in 1760), Giardini and William Herschel (q.v) conducted Avison's players, and Avison collaborated with Giardini in 1763 on an English oratorio Ruth. A famous soloist from 1763 was the Swalwell-born violinist William Shield (q.v.) a prolific composer in his own right, who became Master of the King's Musick in 1817.
Avison also wrote the influential Essay on Musical Expression (1752), the first such treatise in English - no doubt the fruit of discussions in the cultivated circles of Newcastle, and courted controversy with his less than enthusiastic assessment of Handel, then considered to be the supreme English composer. No less a contemporary figure than Charles Burney considered Avison 'an ingenious and polished man, esteemed and respected by all who knew him; and an elegant writer upon his art.' Avison's fame was enough to earn him a mention in Laurence Sterne's celebrated novel Tristram Shandy, but despite offers from London, York and Dublin, he preferred to remain in Newcastle, where he was organist at St Nicholas from 1736 until his death in 1770. Robert Browning made Avison the subject of one of the best of his Parleyings with Certain People, referring to him as 'Thou, whilom of Newcastle organist!' and saying how much he enjoyed his 'Grand March':

Hear Avison! He tenders evidence
That music in his day as much absorbed
Heart and soul then as Wagner's music now...

Arthur Milner (1894-1972), celebrated director of music at the Royal Grammar school in Newcastle from 1926-48 was one of the first and most enthusiastic advocates of Avison's work. He published two seminal articles on him in 1954 and discussed Avison's Essay on Musical Expression in the Quarterly Record of April 1955.