Wilfred Brown

Infobox musical artist
Name = Wilfred Brown


Background = solo_singer
Birth_name = Wilfred Brown
Born = 1922
Horsham, West Sussex UK
Died = 5 March 1971 (age 49)
Petersfield, England, UK
Genre =
Occupation = Singer
Voice_type = tenor
Years_active =
Associated_acts =
Notable_instruments =

Wilfred Brown (1922-1971) was an accomplished English tenor [ New Grove Encyclopaedia of Music (2005)] .

He was born in Horsham, Sussex and educated at Collyer's School, Sidney Sussex, Cambridge and Trinity College of Music. Brown was a lifelong member of the Religious Society of Friends [ [http://www.quaker.org.uk/ Quaker] ] . He was Master in charge of Music at Bedales before becoming a full-time musician.

Like fellow Petersfield resident Michael John Hurd, he championed the work of Gerald Finzi, who was a personal friend. In 1957, at St James' Square, London, Brown gave the first performance of "Till Earth Outwears", a posthumous collection of Finzi's settings of poems by Thomas Hardy. In 1963 he recorded what is often cited as the definitive performance of the composer's "Dies Natalis (Op.8)" under the direction of the composer's son, Christopher Finzi [Tempo, New Ser., No. 45. (Autumn, 1957), pp. 1-4, [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0040-2982%28195723%292%3A0%3A45%3C1%3ANAN%3E2.0.CO%3B2-J] ] . He had previously studied the work with the composer and had been his choice in several performances [A Finzi Discography, Diana McVeagh, Tempo, New Ser., No. 136. (Mar., 1981), pp. 19-22, [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0040-2982%28198103%292%3A0%3A136%3C19%3AAFD%3E2.0.CO%3B2-T] ] . He was a great friend of the guitarist John Williams and recorded a noted collection of English folk songs with him [ Belart 461 4892 released 1998 CD] .

Brown died in Petersfield from a brain tumour on 5 March 1971, aged 49 [Obituary by John Stevens in The Musical Times, Vol. 112, No. 1539. (May, 1971), p. 478, [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0027-4666%28197105%29112%3A1539%3C478%3AWB%3E2.0.CO%3B2-Y] ] . In his last recital, given at Highclere Castle in Hampshire, he had sung "Dies Natalis" [Sleeve notes from Wilfred Brown and John Williams: Folk songs (Belart 461 4892, released 1998), John T. Hughes] .

Notes