Julian Bream

Julian Bream stood among the foremost classical guitarists of the twentieth century. He brought the instrument to prominence across continents, redefined much of its concert repertoire, and played a central role in restoring the lute to active performance.

Born on July 15, 1933, in London’s Battersea district, he spent his childhood in suburban Hampton. His father, a commercial artist with a passion for jazz guitar, provided the earliest guidance, yet Bream largely developed his skills alone by copying Django Reinhardt discs heard in his grandmother’s pub and following a method book by Eddie Lang. Further instruction came from Boris Perrott through the Philharmonic Society of Guitarists. By fourteen he was already appearing in classical guitar recitals. At sixteen he entered the Royal College of Music to study piano and composition, though he quickly secured high-profile engagements on guitar. His Wigmore Hall debut took place in 1951. After two years of national service with the Royal Artillery Band, where he continued performing in London clubs, Bream devoted himself entirely to the guitar. He toured Europe, followed by East Asia, India, and Australia, then reached the United States in 1958 and 1959. His playing appeared frequently on film and radio drama soundtracks. While at the Royal College he had also begun playing the lute; in 1960 he established the Julian Bream Consort, one of Britain’s earliest early-music ensembles, and led the group on American tours as well.

Thereafter Bream ranked among the foremost interpreters of both guitar and lute, regularly filling the principal recital venues worldwide. His deeply expressive approach, which he credited to Andrés Segovia and Francisco Tárrega, attracted listeners of every background, and his televised master classes and BBC historical programs widened his audience further. After sustaining a serious arm injury in a 1984 car accident, he returned to the stage and performed Malcolm Arnold’s Guitar Concerto at the 1991 BBC Proms, an event carried on both radio and television. Arnold belonged to a lengthy roster of living composers who wrote expressly for Bream; before these commissions the guitar had occupied only a modest place in contemporary music. Among the others were Hans Werner Henze, Benjamin Britten—whose Nocturnal, composed for Bream, remains a standard—and Toru Takemitsu.

Bream’s discography eventually numbered some ninety recordings. He began in 1957 on Deutsche Grammophon with Julian Bream Plays Spanish Guitar Music and remained a staple of the RCA Red Seal catalogue for decades. Three duet albums were made with guitarist John Williams, and he also recorded extensively on lute. His honors encompassed six Grammy Awards and appointment as Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1985. A fiftieth-anniversary recital at Wigmore Hall occurred in 2001; he retired the following year. Reaching eighty, he remarked that he played better than at seventy yet could no longer demonstrate the fact. Bream married twice—first to Margaret Williamson, later to Isabel Sanchez—and adopted one son; both marriages ended in divorce. He died at his home in Wiltshire, England, on August 14, 2020.