He is a guitarist and lutenist born in London,
England.His father was a jazz guitarist and
he bought him a classical guitar for his 11th birthday as well
as urging him to learn the piano.Hailed as a child prodigy he attended the Royal College of Music to
study piano and cello after winning an junior
exhibition, and he debuted at a guitar recital when he was 14.He debuted in London
in 1951 but then went into the military for his National Service.He returned to music straight
afterwards and formed the Julian Bream Consort in 1960 where he played the
lute in the period ensemble and revived the music of the Elizabethan age.His career was halted temporarily in
1984 when he was in a car accident where he suffered serious injuries that
he needed to overcome to regain his abilities.He has worked alongside many
composers and has had many works dedicated to him by Richard Rodney
Bennett, Benjamin
Britten
, William Walton, Michael Tippett and Malcolm
Arnold among many others.Regularly appearing on radio and television programmes, including
his TV series Guitarra!, he is
recognized and respected worldwide and a DVD was released in 2003 about his
work, Julian Bream: My Life in Music.He was made an Officer of the Order
of the British Empire (OBE) in 1964, was presented the Villa Lobos Gold
Medal by Madame Villa-Lobos in 1976 and has won a Grammy Award for
"Best Chamber Music Performance".
