Antony Pay (born 21 February 1945 in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

) is a classical

clarinet The clarinet is a musical instrument in the woodwind family. The instrument has a nearly cylindrical bore and a flared bell, and uses a single reed to produce sound. Clarinets comprise a family of instruments of differing sizes and pitches ...

tist. After gaining a place with the

National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain The National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain (NYO-GB) is the national youth orchestra of the United Kingdom, consisting of 164 members of ages 13 to 19 years. Their mission is to "give thrilling experiences of orchestral music to teenage musici ...

, with whom he performed the Mozart clarinet concerto at the age of 16, he studied at the

Royal Academy of Music The Royal Academy of Music (RAM) in London, England, is the oldest conservatoire in the UK, founded in 1822 by John Fane and Nicolas-Charles Bochsa. It received its royal charter in 1830 from King George IV with the support of the first Duke of ...

and then read

Mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

Cambridge University , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

, graduating in 1966. Principal

Clarinet The clarinet is a musical instrument in the woodwind family. The instrument has a nearly cylindrical bore and a flared bell, and uses a single reed to produce sound. Clarinets comprise a family of instruments of differing sizes and pitches ...

positions include the

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO) is a British symphony orchestra based in London, that performs and produces primarily classic works. The RPO was established by Thomas Beecham in 1946. In its early days, the orchestra secured profitable ...

from 1968 to 1978,

London Sinfonietta The London Sinfonietta is an English contemporary chamber orchestra founded in 1968 and based in London. The ensemble has headquarters at Kings Place and is Resident Orchestra at the Southbank Centre. Since its inaugural concert in 1968—givi ...

(of which he was a founder member) from 1968 to 1983 and the

Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields The Academy of St Martin in the Fields (ASMF) is an English chamber orchestra, based in London. John Churchill, then Master of Music at the London church of St Martin-in-the-Fields, and Neville Marriner founded the orchestra as "The Academy o ...

from 1976 to 1986. A member of several chamber ensembles he has worked with the

Nash Ensemble The Nash Ensemble of London is an English chamber ensemble. It was founded by Artistic Director Amelia Freedman and Rodney Slatford in 1964, while they were students at the Royal Academy of Music, and was named after the Nash Terraces around ...

, the Tuckwell Wind Quintet, the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields Chamber Ensemble, and Hausmusik. During his time with the London Sinfonietta he collaborated with a variety of composers, including

Boulez Pierre Louis Joseph Boulez (; 26 March 1925 – 5 January 2016) was a French composer, conductor and writer, and the founder of several musical institutions. He was one of the dominant figures of post-war Western classical music. Born in Mon ...

Stockhausen Karlheinz Stockhausen (; 22 August 1928 – 5 December 2007) was a German composer, widely acknowledged by critics as one of the most important but also controversial composers of the 20th and early 21st centuries. He is known for his groundb ...

, Birtwistle, Henze, Maxwell Davies, Goehr and Berio. For the RCA he recorded Berio's Concertino, with the composer conducting, and gave the first performance of Henze's mini-concerto Miracle of the Rose, which was written for him to direct from the clarinet. He has previously been Professor of Clarinet at the

Guildhall School of Music and Drama The Guildhall School of Music and Drama is a conservatoire and drama school located in the City of London, United Kingdom. Established in 1880, the school offers undergraduate and postgraduate training in all aspects of classical music and jazz ...

from 1982 to 1990, the

, the Music Academy Accademia Lorenzo Perosi in Biella and at

Musikene Musikene or the Higher School of Music of the Basque Country (Basque - ''Euskal Herriko Goi-Mailako Musika Ikastegia''; Spanish - ''Centro Superior de Música del País Vasco'') is a higher education music school located in San Sebastián, in the ...

- Centro Superior de Música del País Vasco in San Sebastián (Spain) from 2005 to 2018. Recently he has concentrated on solo playing and conducting, recording the

Spohr Louis Spohr (, 5 April 178422 October 1859), baptized Ludewig Spohr, later often in the modern German form of the name Ludwig, was a German composer, violinist and conducting, conductor. Highly regarded during his lifetime, Spohr composed ten Sy ...

and Mozart Concertos for

Decca Decca may refer to: Music * Decca Records or Decca Music Group, a record label * Decca Gold, a classical music record label owned by Universal Music Group * Decca Broadway, a musical theater record label * Decca Studios, a recording facility in W ...

, the Weber and Crusell Concertos for Virgin Classics and Birtwistle's Melencolia I for NMC. He has conducted the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields in Germany, Austria and the Netherlands, and the London Sinfonietta throughout Europe, as well as guest-conducting with orchestras in Scandinavia, Italy and the United States. Period performance on specially reconstructed instruments includes his recordings of the Mozart, Weber and Crusell Concertos. He currently works with The

Academy of Ancient Music The Academy of Ancient Music (AAM) is a British period-instrument orchestra based in Cambridge, England. Founded by harpsichordist Christopher Hogwood in 1973, it was named after an 18th-century organisation of the same name (originally the A ...

and the

Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (OAE) is a British period instrument orchestra. The OAE is a resident orchestra of the Southbank Centre, London, associate orchestra at Glyndebourne Festival Opera Artistic Associate at Kings Place, and h ...

, with both of which he is a frequent soloist. His recording of the Mozart concerto with The AAM and Christopher Hogwood is available on Decca (414 339-2). He has written for the journal Early Music and '' The Cambridge Companion to the Clarinet''. He is working on a book concerned mainly with the use of metaphor in teaching and learning to play the clarinet.

References

Biography at Coldbergweb.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pay, Antony English clarinetists 1945 births Living people Alumni of the Royal Academy of Music Honorary Members of the Royal Academy of Music 21st-century clarinetists