Julian Bream
Julian Alexander Bream was born in Battersea, London, and grew up in a musical family. His father, Henry George Bream, played jazz guitar, and the young Bream was particularly impressed when he heard Django Reinhardt. Although encouraged to learn piano, he also took up the guitar. After listening to a recording of Tárrega’s “Recuerdos de la Alhambra” played by Andrés Segovia, he decided to devote himself to the guitar rather than pursue cricket. On his 11th birthday he received a concert guitar from his father, which he taught himself to play.
At the age of 12 he won a junior piano competition that enabled him to study piano and cello at the Royal College of Music. His first public guitar recital took place in 1947 in Cheltenham when he was 13. As a teenager he also played film music as a classical guitarist.
In 1951 Bream made his debut at Wigmore Hall in London. After military service, during which he played electric guitar in a big band, he resumed his professional career and toured internationally for many years, including regular annual tours in the United States and Europe.
Bream played a key role in the modern revival of the lute. Together with the tenor Peter Pears, he presented numerous recitals in the 1950s and 60s featuring English Renaissance repertoire by composers such as John Dowland and Thomas Morley. Through this collaboration and his solo lute performances, he introduced a wide audience to Elizabethan-era music. In 1960 he founded the Julian Bream Consort, one of the first ensembles to perform early music on original instruments. In 1963 he appeared with Indian musician Ali Akbar Khan in a live BBC broadcast and subsequently travelled to India. In 1964 he was appointed Officer of the British Empire.
Bream’s recital programmes were wide-ranging. They included 17th-century music, arrangements of works by Johann Sebastian Bach, compositions by Heitor Villa-Lobos, as well as popular Spanish repertoire.
Many contemporary composers wrote works for him, including Malcolm Arnold, Benjamin Britten, Leo Brouwer, Peter Racine Fricker, Hans Werner Henze, Humphrey Searle, Tōru Takemitsu, Michael Tippett and William Walton. Britten’s “Nocturnal after John Dowland”, completed in 1963, became one of the most significant works for guitar, written specifically with Bream in mind. Another major contribution to the repertoire composed for Bream was Henze’s “Royal Winter Music” sonatas. Bream’s interpretations of Isaac Albéniz’s “Suite española” and Enrique Granados’s “Danza No. 5” are regarded as important contributions to the history of guitar interpretation.
At Faber Music in London he published the Faber Guitar Series, producing editions for classical guitar. Through recitals, broadcasts and television appearances, Bream became one of the central figures of classical guitar in the 20th century. In 1967 he released the album “20th Century Guitar”.
For television he created the series “Guitarra! – A Musical Journey through Spain”, an eight-part documentary on the history of the instrument. The series, later released on DVD, featured Bream performing on classical guitar, vihuela, renaissance guitar and baroque guitar.
In 2003 the documentary “My Life in Music”, directed by Paul Bahner, was released, offering interviews and concert footage. Graham Wade described it as “the most beautiful film about the classical guitar ever”.
Julian Bream gave his final public concert in 2002 in Norwich.
