Double Reed 70 cover - British Double Reed Society

Photo: Mitch Jenkins President’s
Acceptance Message
“My oboe playing began when I was at school, at Gowerton
Grammar School, in South Wales. John Anderson later went there!
I quickly progressed through the ranks of school, West Glamorgan
and Glamorgan Youth Orchestras eventually to become a very
nervous Principal in the National Youth Orchestra of Wales. As is
often the case in these conglomerations there were about seven
oboes. Down the line was a youngster called David Theodore. I
wonder what became of him! I then went on to Cardiff University
where I read music followed by a post-graduate year at the Royal
Academy of Music, where I studied with Leonard Brain.
“During my teenage years I had developed a keen interest in jazz
and eventually became one of the few jazz oboists in captivity, also playing sax and piano in bands
like Ronnie Scott’s, Nucleus and Soft Machine. There were about three of us ‘globally’ who attempted
this difficult task: a guy called Bob Cooper who was primarily a sax player in the Stan Kenton Band
and another sax player called Yusef Lateef. I remember us warming up in adjacent dressing rooms at
the Montreux Jazz Festival – what a racket!
“I played a Marigaux by the way. Once I got into composition, the oboe stayed in the case so it is
therefore with great embarrassment that I have accepted this position. Anyway, I did play one once.”
Karl Jenkins was born in Wales and
educated at Gowerton Grammar School
before reading music at the University of
Wales, Cardiff. He then commenced
postgraduate studies at the Royal
Academy of Music, London.
It was in jazz that he initially made his
mark. In those days of ‘Jazz Polls’ he
was a prolific poll winner, playing at
London’s famous Ronnie Scott’s club
before co-forming Nucleus, which won
first prize at the Montreux jazz festival
and appeared at the Newport Jazz
Festival, Rhode Island.
Dr. Karl Jenkins OBE B.Mus FRAM ARAM LRAM FRWCMD FTCC
Oboe President of the British Double Reed Society
Acceptance Message
Biography
This was followed by a period with Soft
Machine, one of the seminal bands of the
70s. Through many incarnations, ‘Softs’
defied categorisation, playing venues as
diverse as Carnegie Hall, The Proms at
the Royal Albert Hall and the Reading
Rock Festival.
In the field of advertising music he
has won the prestigious D&AD award
for best music [twice], the ‘Creative
Circle Gold’ and several ‘Clios’ (New
York) and ‘Golden Lions’ (Cannes).
Credits include Levi’s, British Airways,
Renault, Volvo, C&G, Tag Heuer, Pepsi
as well as US/global campaigns for
De Beers and Delta Airlines and
Bafta ‘gongs’ for his scores for the
documentaries The Celts and
Testament.
After this period as a media composer,
his return to the music mainstream was
initially marked by the success of the
Adiemus project. Adiemus, combining a
classical base with ethnic vocal sounds,
ethnic percussion and an invented
language, topped classical and pop charts
around the world, gaining 17 gold or
platinum album awards while performing
Double Reed News 85 Winter 2008 7