Georgina Dobrée

Georgina Dobrée (8 January 1930 – 27 April 2008) was an English clarinettist. She firstly played the violin and piano in her childhood years but dropped the violin and later took up the clarinet as a second instrument while studying in London. She began her professional musical career in 1951 and continued up until 1999 around several locations. Her career also saw her set up her own record company and undertake a professorship role at the Royal Academy of Music.

Biography

Early life Dobrée was born at 74 Sutherland Avenue in Maida Vale in London on 8 January 1930. She was the only child of the literary scholar Bonamy Dobrée, and his wife, the author and poet Gladys May Mabel (Valentine), née Brooke-Pechell. Dobrée was first raised in Mendham Priory in Norfolk and later moved to Earls Colne in Essex. She began studying the violin and piano at an early age. Dobrée was evacuated to the United States when World War II broke out and stayed with friends of her parents. While studying at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore in Maryland, she stopped playing the violin for a clarinet she found by chance at her new home. Dobrée immediately discovered a natural liking for the instrument.

Later years The increasing demands of touring and lecturing gradually made her teaching role impractical and gave up her professorship in 1986. Dobrée did however continue lessons, masterclasses and workshops on an individual basis. To ensure her works would remain available, they were transferred to Emerson Edition in 1999. That same year, Dobrée finished one of her last editions, a collection of four French clarinet works that was published by Kevin Mayhew. She suffered from Alzheimer's disease in her later years and moved to a nursing home in Hitchin in Hertfordshire. Dobrée fractured her left femur in early 2008 and underwent surgery. She later died of a chest infection at the Lister Hospital in Stevenage on 27 April 2008. Dobrée was not married.