Anthony Lewis (musician)

Sir Anthony Carey Lewis KBE (2 March 1915 – 5 June 1983), also known as Sir Carey Lewis, was an English conductor, composer, editor, and music educator.^[1] He is best known for co-founding and serving as the first chief editor of Musica Britannica. He also penned several critical editions of operas by George Frideric Handel and of Henry Purcell's The Fairy Queen,^[2] and served for many years as honorary secretary of the Purcell Society.^[3] As a conductor he played a role in the baroque music revival of the mid 20th century by leading performances of several Handel opera revivals. He was named a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1972.^[2]

Born to English parents in Bermuda, he was educated at Wellington College, the Royal Academy of Music and Peterhouse, Cambridge. He pursued further studies in Paris with Nadia Boulanger in 1934. From 1935-1946 he served on the music staff of the BBC as a conductor and composer. In 1947 he joined the music faculty of the University of Birmingham. He left that post in 1968 to join the music faculty of the Royal Academy of Music, where he taught until his retirement in 1982.^[2] One of his notable students was the musicologist Nigel Fortune on whom he had a profound influence.^[3] He died in Haslemere.^[2]

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