Jelly and Adila D'Aranyi were born in Budapest, grand-nieces of the great violinist Joseph Joachim. Both had international careers and settled in London, where Adila married barrister Alexander Fachiri. The sisters premiered Holst's Concerto for Two Violins in April 1930, and individually were the dedicatees of works by composers including Bartok, Ravel, and Vaughan Williams. Both were devotees of spiritualism, and in 1933 were involved in a seance at which the existence of Robert Schumann's Violin Concerto in D minor was supposedly revealed to them through the "voices" of Schumann and Joachim.