BRIDGE first met his future patron, Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge (1864– 1953), at a Sunday afternoon tea-party given by Mary Winthrop Rogers on 28 May 1922. Coolidge had come into a substantial inheritance on the deaths of both her parents and husband in the years 1915–16, and had subsequently decided to pursue music patronage on a grand scale. She was an accomplished pianist and composer, whose interest in music had been nurtured from an early age. She was particularly devoted to chamber music, and it was towards this genre that her Berkshire Festival (held in Pittsfield, Massachusetts) was orientated. When Bridge met Coolidge, she was planning the 1923 festival, which was to focus on British composers. She had heard Bridge's First String Quartet at her 1920 festival, and it is likely that her confidante and advisor Rebecca Clarke would have recommended Bridge to her.

The meeting appears to have gone well, and an informal run-through of the String Sextet was arranged the following month at the Bridges’ home. It appears that Coolidge took an immediate liking to Bridge, who in turn recognised in Coolidge a potentially advantageous contact. Whether he was truly impressed with her personality at this point is difficult to gauge, but it seems safe to say that he did not dislike her, and it is likely that aspects of her personality would have appealed to him, notably her open-minded approach to contemporary music, which must have struck him as being refreshingly free of limiting preconceptions about aesthetic value and a composer's personal image. The two appear to have struck up an immediate rapport, and Coolidge invited the Bridges on a motoring tour of France in July. On their return, another sightseeing tour, taking in Bath and Devon, was arranged, and the following year they again visited the continent, touring Belgium and Holland.

In the meantime, Coolidge had invited the Bridges to attend the 1923 festival, at which the String Sextet was performed. Both Bridge and his wife were understandably somewhat overwhelmed by the pace at which their association with their new friend and benefactor developed.