Geoffrey Gilbert
Geoffrey Winzer Gilbert (8 May 1914–1989) was an English flautist.
Gilbert was born in Liverpool, England. He joined Sir Thomas Beecham's London Philharmonic Orchestra in 1933; he was its principal flautist at the age of 19. He held this position until the outbreak of World War II in 1939, when he volunteered to join the Coldstream Guards. He served with the Guards throughout the war, and was in poor health by the time he regained his professional freedom in 1946. He rejoined the London Philharmonic (though Beecham was no longer its conductor) and became a teacher at the Guildhall School of Music. In 1948, he founded the Wigmore Ensemble which brought together the outstanding windwood players of that generation including Jack Brymer, Terence MacDonagh and Gwydion Brooke. Dennis Brain played regularly with the Wigmore Ensemble, until his death in 1957.
In 1948, Gilbert joined the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Sir Adrian Boult. Sir Malcolm Sargent was Boult's successor as chief conductor; a professional disagreement with Sargent led to Gilbert's resignation in 1952. He rejoined Sir Thomas Beecham in the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in 1957, but, after Beecham's death in 1961, he never played regularly with any other orchestra though he was the guest principal with the London Symphony Orchestra on many occasions. This led to his long commitment to Stetson University, and his move to Deland, Florida, in 1969.
He was the father of the television scriptwriter, director and producer John Selwyn Gilbert, who wrote:
My father was a great player and "a rare teacher" as William Bennett wrote in an obituary. Sir James Galway also pays tribute to him in his autobiography. He inspired more than one generation of British flute players and many of the leading players in British orchestras studied with him or with his pupils. A studio at the Guildhall School of Music is dedicated to his memory and Angeleita Floyd's book about him and his methods, published in 1990, is still available. He was a modest, gentle and dignified man whose only faults were his chain-smoking and his total inability to cook. My mother tolerated the first and compensated splendidly for the second. Her part in his achievement should never be underestimated.[1]
References
- ↑ Information supplied by John Selwyn Gilbert
External links
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