Geoffrey Winzer Gilbert was an English flautist, who was a leading influence on British flute-playing, introducing a more flexible style, based on French techniques, with metal instruments replacing the traditional wood.
19 Facts About Geoffrey Gilbert
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Geoffrey Gilbert was a prominent member of five British symphony orchestras between 1930 and 1961, and in 1948 he founded a chamber ensemble of leading wind players.
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Geoffrey Gilbert was born in Liverpool, England, the son of Ernest Geoffrey Gilbert, an oboist, and his wife Jessie, nee Thomas, a teacher.
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In 1933 Geoffrey Gilbert joined Sir Thomas Beecham's London Philharmonic Orchestra; he was its principal flautist at the age of nineteen.
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Geoffrey Gilbert recognised that French players such as Marcel Moyse, who played on metal flutes, could produce a far wider range of tone-colour.
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Geoffrey Gilbert remained with the LPO until the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, when he volunteered to join the Coldstream Guards.
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Geoffrey Gilbert remained nominally the orchestra's principal flautist until 1942, and managed to play in some concerts.
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Geoffrey Gilbert rejoined the London Philharmonic after the war, and became a teacher at the Guildhall School of Music and Trinity College of Music, London.
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Geoffrey Gilbert's students included William Bennett, James Galway, Michael Graubart, Susan Milan, Stephen Preston and Trevor Wye.
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In 1948 Geoffrey Gilbert founded the Wigmore Ensemble which brought together leading wind players of that generation including Jack Brymer, Terence MacDonagh and Gwydion Brooke.
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Geoffrey Gilbert's range embraced jazz and dance music: concurrently with his orchestra work he was Geraldo's flautist.
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In 1948 Geoffrey Gilbert joined the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Sir Adrian Boult.
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Geoffrey Gilbert rejoined Beecham, now with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, in 1957.
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From 1957 to 1969 Geoffrey Gilbert was director of wind studies at the RMCM, before moving to Stetson University in Florida in the US, where he remained for ten years, as director of instrumental studies and conductor in residence.
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Geoffrey Gilbert was in demand for masterclasses in the US and Europe.
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Geoffrey Gilbert was the father of the television scriptwriter, director and producer John Selwyn Geoffrey Gilbert, who wrote:.
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Geoffrey Gilbert 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.
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Geoffrey Gilbert was a modest, gentle and dignified man whose only faults were his heavy smoking and his total inability to cook.
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Geoffrey Gilbert left a widow, a son and a daughter.