Geoffrey Gilbert

Who was Geoffrey Gilbert?

Geoffrey Winzer Gilbert 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 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.