- Thea King
Infobox musical artist
Name = Dame Thea King
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Background = non_vocal_instrumentalist
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Born =December 26 ,1925 Hitchin ,Hertfordshire ,England
Died = Death date and age|2007|6|26|1925|12|26
Origin =London , England
Instrument =Clarinet
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Genre = Classical
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Years_active = 1950s–2007
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Notable_instruments =Dame Thea King DBE
FRCM FGSMOBE (26 December 1925 –26 June 2007 ) was a Britishclarinettist .Thea King was born in
Hitchin ,Hertfordshire . She was the daughter of Henry Walter Mayer King, the manager of a family engineering business, George. W. King Ltd., which was based inHitchin thenStevenage ,Hertfordshire , and his wife, Dorothea (nee Hass). [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?view=DETAILS&grid=&xml=/news/2007/06/30/db3001.xml "Daily Telegraph" Obituary] , accessed30 June 2007 ] She was educated at Bedford High School and won a scholarship to theRoyal College of Music where she studied thepiano with Arthur Alexander and theclarinet withFrederick Thurston .Pamela Weston/Robert Philip, 'King, Thea', "Grove Music Online", accessed30 June 2007 [http://www.grovemusic.com/shared/views/article.html?section=music.15022] ] In January 1953 she married Frederick Thurston but he died fromlung cancer in December of the same year. She did not remarry.She worked as soloist, chamber musician and as a teacher but was probably associated most closely with the
English Chamber Orchestra as principal clarinet from 1964 to 1999. She also worked with theLondon Mozart Players , succeedingGervase de Peyer as principal clarinettist, the Sadler's Wells Opera Orchestra, the Melos Ensemble and the Allegri String Quartet. She was a founder member in 1953 of the Portia Wind Ensemble, an all female group. She was also a member of the Vesuvius and Robles Ensembles.Fact|date=July 2007Thea King made a special study of lesser known works of the 18th and 19th centuries, especially those of Crusell. She commissioned
Elizabeth Maconchy 's "Fantasia" andHoward Blake 's "Clarinet Concerto". Compositions dedicated to her by British composers includeBenjamin Frankel 's "Clarinet Quintet" andGordon Jacob 's "Mini Concerto".From 1961-87, King was Professor of Clarinet at the Royal College of Music and she was a Professor at the
Guildhall School of Music and Drama from 1988 until her death. She was a Fellow of both institutions.Fact|date=July 2007 Thea King was made an OBE in 1985 and was appointed a DBE in 2001.References
Further reading
*Weston, P. "Clarinet Virtuosi of Today", London, 1989, pp 156–162
External links
* [http://www.weku.fm/carter_page_04.htm Michael Carter, "King of the Clarinet"]
* [http://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/artist_page.asp?name=tking Hyperion Records]
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