Lionel Bryer (14 June 1928 – 3 November 2006) was a

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

n- British youth arts promoter. He was co-founder of the International Youth Foundation which developed the European Union Youth Orchestra and the

International Festival of Youth Orchestras International is an adjective (also used as a noun) meaning "between nations". International may also refer to: Music Albums * ''International'' (Kevin Michael album), 2011 * ''International'' (New Order album), 2002 * ''International'' (The T ...

Biography

Born in Bloemfontein,

, he studied medicine at

Witwatersrand University The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (), is a multi-campus South African public research university situated in the northern areas of central Johannesburg. It is more commonly known as Wits University or Wits ( or ). The university ...

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Demo ...

. He went to the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

on winning a

Rhodes Scholarship The Rhodes Scholarship is an international postgraduate award for students to study at the University of Oxford, in the United Kingdom. Established in 1902, it is the oldest graduate scholarship in the world. It is considered among the world' ...

, where he was an avid sportsman, playing rugby, cricket, tennis and skiing. He won a Nuffield research scholarship which brought him to

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

as a Research Fellow. He won the first Albert Joachim International Research Prize in 1956 from the International Association for Dental Research. Afterward he became a successful

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 ...

dentist with a practice on Sloane Street and later in Chelsea. As a dentist he was innovative, developing a ceramic process for fillings, and founded the International Dental Foundation, which organizes dentistry conferences at Swiss ski resorts. A

violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

ist who had played with Johannesburg Symphony Orchestra and the University of Witwatersrand Symphony Orchestra, he also played in the University College string orchestra at Oxford. He had three daughters with his wife Joy Bryer, one of whom is TV presenter

Tania Bryer Tania Bryer (born 5 July 1962) is a British broadcaster who is affiliated with global television network CNBC. She is host and executive producer of the series ''CNBC Meets with Tania Bryer'' and is a regular presenter of ''The CNBC Conversatio ...

Festival

In 1969, Lionel and his American-born wife Joy Bryer founded the International Youth Foundation of Great Britain, with Blyth Major, then director of the Midland Youth Orchestra, and Edward Heath as president. The foundation's goal was increasing international understanding through the unifying bond of music. The first project of the foundation was the 1969 International Festival of Youth Orchestras and Performing Arts, held in St Moritz,

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

, with the duo successfully raising funding for 10 festivals in which leading youth orchestras, ballet, folk, choral, dance, opera and visual arts groups took part. Together they travelled the world to recruit musical groups. The 1969 festival led the

British Tourist Authority VisitBritain is the name used by the British Tourist Authority, the tourist board of Great Britain incorporated under the Development of Tourism Act 1969. Under memoranda of understanding with the Northern Ireland Tourist Board and the offshore is ...

to encourage the movement to come to the UK, and in 1973 the festival expanded to Aberdeen and London. The local support and facilities found in Aberdeen led the foundation to make that city the permanent base of the festival. The event expanded to incorporate dance, ballet, jazz and choirs as well as the orchestral mainstay. Due to a disagreement over the participation of South African performers, the festival moved to Exeter in 1981 and the following year the final IFYO took place in Rome. Meantime in Aberdeen, a new incarnation of the event continued successfully. The

Aberdeen International Youth Festival Aberdeen International Youth Festival was a festival of performing arts and one of Scotland's major international cultural events, which ran from 1981 to 2017. Each year the festival brought over 1000 young people in performing arts companies ...

ran until 2017.

Festival Orchestra

The Aberdeen festivals would conclude with a combined Festival Orchestra led by internationally known conductors, over the years including Claudio Abbado,

Carlo Maria Giulini Carlo Maria Giulini (; 9 May 1914 – 14 June 2005) was an Italian conductor. From the age of five, when he began to play the violin, Giulini's musical education was expanded when he began to study at Italy's foremost conservatory, the Conserva ...

, Walter Susskind and Leopold Stokowski, as well as then-youthful

James Judd James Judd (born 30 October 1949, Hertford) is a British conductor. James Judd grew up in Hertford, learning the piano, flute and organ as a child and discovering his talent for conducting at high school. He studied at the Trinity College of Mu ...

and

Simon Rattle Sir Simon Denis Rattle (born 19 January 1955) is a British-German conductor. He rose to international prominence during the 1980s and 1990s, while music director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (1980–1998). Rattle was principal ...

. The Orchestra went on to appear at the BBC Proms at the

Royal Albert Hall The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall on the northern edge of South Kensington, London. One of the UK's most treasured and distinctive buildings, it is held in trust for the nation and managed by a registered charity which receives no govern ...

, and as the opening concert of the Edinburgh International Festival in 1978, the first youth orchestra to appear there.

European Union Youth Orchestra

On the UK accession to the European Community, the Bryers founded the European Community Youth Orchestra in 1974. The orchestra, later the European Union Youth Orchestra, set out to demonstrate how music could be a symbol of the European ideal of a united community of nations, and is officially sponsored by the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adopts ...

. Today the orchestra comprises up to 140 players, who represent all member countries of the European Union, selected each year from over 4,000 candidates aged 16 to 26 by rigorous auditions.

References

External links

European Union Youth Orchestra history
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bryer, Lionel 1928 births 2006 deaths Alumni of University College, Oxford Harvard Medical School alumni University of the Witwatersrand alumni People from Bloemfontein English dentists South African Rhodes Scholars 20th-century British philanthropists 20th-century dentists