Biography: TREVOR WYE began playing the flute at the age of 15. Though he had a few private lessons with Geoffrey Gilbert, he was fortunate in not attending a college of music, a conservatory or a university, the result of which was that he was unaware of his many faults. He wasn’t awarded a diploma or a degree, nor did he win any competitions. His formative years were influenced by many players and singers, particularly Alfred Deller, William Bennett and the extraordinary Marcel Moyse with whom he later studied and who was a major influence on his playing, teaching and writing career.

Though untrained, he Professed both at the Guildhall School of Music, London and the Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester, at the latter for 22 years. The RNCM, embarrassed by his singular lack of credentials, awarded him an honorary degree.

Trevor Wye is the author of the famous Practice Books for the Flute, which have received world wide acclaim and have been translated into ten other languages, the royalties of which keep him in a style to which he is gradually becoming accustomed. More recently, his highly praised biography of Marcel Moyse was published in English, German, Japanese, French and Spanish. Currently, he is working with friends on an encyclopaedia of the flute, a shorter version of which he hopes to have published before turning his toes up.

Trevor Wye teaches at his Flute Studio in Kent, a one year residential course for postgraduate students, (described by a former student as ‘a boot camp for the flute!’), and travels throughout the world giving master classes including annual appearances in Switzerland and Japan, and at many international flute conventions. He enjoys serving on juries for international competitions, and giving recitals and presenting his unique “flutes fantastic!” an hilarious recital with commentary in which he plays on more than fifty different flutes, some electronic, which he built. “flutes fantastic!” contains the famous ‘40 Variations on the Carnival In Venice’ for 53 flutes.

He collects antique spectacles on which he sometimes lectures, and in 1990, won the Annual Quiz on the subject of the Mapp and Lucia novels, awarded by the E.F.Benson Society. He spends his spare time gardening, or at the astronomical observatories in his garden, and with his two cats, Georgie and Benjie.

He remains married to his first wife Dot, who was not his former student. BACK TO PAGE ONE