Brymer, Jack
Brymer, Jack
Brymer, Jack, English clarinetist and teacher; b. South Shields, Jan. 27, 1915. He was educated at Goldsmiths’ Coll., Univ. of London. Following service in the Royal Air Force in World War II (1940–45), he was principal clarinet in the Royal Phil. in London (1946–63), the BBC Sym. Orch. in London (1963–72), and the London Sym. Orch. (1972–87). He also was a member of the Wigmore, Prometheus, and London Baroque ensembles. Brymer was director of the London Wind Soloists, with which he championed the complete chamber music for winds of J.C. Bach, Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven. He also was active as a mainstream jazz artist. He was a prof, at the Royal Academy of Music in London (1950–58), the Royal Military School of Music in Kneller Hall (1969–73), and at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London (from 1981). In 1960 he was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire. He publ, the books The Clarinet (1976), an autobiography, From Where I Sit (1979), and In the Orch. (1987).
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire