Biography
Gervase de Peyer is an English clarinetist. He was awarded a scholarship to the Royal College of Music where he studied clarinet with Frederick Thurston and piano with Arthur Alexander. Towards the end of World War II he joined the Royal Marines Band Service. De Peyer returned to the Royal College of Music after the war and subsequently studied in Paris with Louis Cahuzac. In 1950 he was a founding member of the Melos Ensemble for which he continued to play until 1974. He conducted their recordings with EMI. From 1956 to 1973 he was principal clarinet of the London Symphony Orchestra. He was a founding member of The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in New York in 1969 and played with them for 20 years. He has conducted the English Chamber Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Melos Sinfonia, he has directed the London Symphony Orchestra Wind Ensemble and is the associate conductor of the Haydn Orchestra. In 1959 he began teaching at the Royal Academy of Music.
