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Aubrey Brain (12 July 189321 September 1955) was a British French horn player and teacher. He was the father of Dennis Brain.
In 1911 Aubrey Brain won a scholarship to the Royal College of Music. He was appointed principal horn of the New Symphony Orchestra that same year, and in 1912 he went on the LSO's tour of the United States under Arthur Nikisch. He was principal horn of Thomas Beecham's opera company orchestra in 1913.
In 1923 he succeeded his teacher, Adolf Borsdorf as professor of horn at the Royal Academy of Music, where his son Dennis Brain was among his students.
Dame Ethel Smyth wrote her Concerto for Violin, Horn and Orchestra with Aubrey Brain in mind. He and Jelly d'Arányi premiered the work under Sir Henry Wood on 5 March 1927. He also played it in Berlin with Marjorie Hayward. He joined the BBC Symphony Orchestra as principal horn, and remained there until illness caused his premature retirement in 1943. He was often a soloist, and made a number of recordings.
He had a marked preference for French instruments, and played a hand horn made by Labbaye in c. 1865, to which English-made valves had been added. He would never permit the use of large-bore German horns in the BBC SO.
He married Marion Beeley, a singer at Covent Garden. His two sons were Dennis Brain, even more famous as a horn player, and Leonard Brain, an oboe.
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