Melachrino
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George Melachrino (born ''George Miltiades''; 1 May 1909 – 18 June 1965) was a
musician A musician is someone who Composer, composes, Conducting, conducts, or Performing arts#Performers, performs music. According to the United States Employment Service, "musician" is a general Terminology, term used to designate a person who fol ...
, composer of
film music A film score is original music written specifically to accompany a film. The score comprises a number of orchestral, instrumental, or choral pieces called cues, which are timed to begin and end at specific points during the film in order to ...
, and
musical director A music director, musical director or director of music is a person responsible for the musical aspects of a performance, production, or organization. This would include the artistic director and usually chief conductor of an orchestra or concert ...
who was
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born of
Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...
and
Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...
descent. He was an accomplished player of the violin, viola, oboe, clarinet and saxophone.


Biography

George Melachrino was born in
London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
, England. As a young boy, he had a love of
music Music is the arrangement of sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm, or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Music is generally agreed to be a cultural universal that is present in all hum ...
. At the age of five, he began composing and by the age of fourteen he enrolled in the
Trinity College of Music Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance is a music, dance, and musical theatre conservatoire based in South East London. It was formed in 2005 as a merger of two older institutions – Trinity College of Music and Laban Dance Centre. Trini ...
. In 1927, he began his career by singing and playing at the
Savoy Hill Savoy (; )  is a cultural-historical region in the Western Alps. Situated on the cultural boundary between Occitania and Piedmont, the area extends from Lake Geneva in the north to the Dauphiné in the south and west and to the Aosta Valley i ...
Studios in London. For the next twelve years, he played in many different bands and orchestras. In the 1930s, Melachrino started working for
band Band or BAND may refer to: Places *Bánd, a village in Hungary * Band, Iran, a village in Urmia County, West Azerbaijan Province, Iran * Band, Mureș, a commune in Romania * Band-e Majid Khan, a village in Bukan County, West Azerbaijan Province, ...
s led by
Ambrose Ambrose of Milan (; 4 April 397), venerated as Saint Ambrose, was a theologian and statesman who served as Bishop of Milan from 374 to 397. He expressed himself prominently as a public figure, fiercely promoting Roman Christianity against Ari ...
singing and playing saxophone with Carroll Gibbons at the
Savoy Hotel The Savoy Hotel is a luxury hotel located in the Strand in the City of Westminster in central London, England. Built by the impresario Richard D'Oyly Carte with profits from his Gilbert and Sullivan opera productions, it opened on 6 August 1 ...
London, and
Bert Firman Bert Firman (born Herbert Feuerman; 3 February 1906 – 9 April 1999) was an English bandleader of the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s. He was born in London. His mother was of Polish stock and his father was a professional musician who had settl ...
, and started playing on radio for the
BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...
. In 1935, he was living at Ascot Court, Grove End Road, in
St John's Wood St John's Wood is a district in the London Borough of Camden, London Boroughs of Camden and the City of Westminster, London, England, about 2.5 miles (4 km) northwest of Charing Cross. Historically the northern part of the Civil Parish#An ...
.London Metropolitan Archives; London, England; 1832-1965 atabase on-line By 1939, he had started his own band and secured a contract at the Café de Paris. He joined the
Army An army, ground force or land force is an armed force that fights primarily on land. In the broadest sense, it is the land-based military branch, service branch or armed service of a nation or country. It may also include aviation assets by ...
a year later, and received training at the Corps of Military Police where he became a P.T. Instructor. Melachrino also gained experience as a military musician at the Army Broadcasting Department, as Musical Director for the recording of entertainment for overseas forces, leading the British Band of the
Allied Expeditionary Forces Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF; ) was the headquarters of the Commander of Allied forces in northwest Europe, from late 1943 until the end of World War II. US General Dwight D. Eisenhower was the commander in SHAEF thro ...
and the Orchestra Khaki. After the war, in 1945, he formed the George Melachrino Orchestra, an orchestra that became synonymous with lush string arrangements. From 1945 to 1947, he conducted for
Richard Tauber Richard Tauber (16 May 1891, Linz – 8 January 1948, London) was an Austrian lyric tenor and film actor. He performed the tenor role in numerous operas, including ''Don Giovanni'' by Mozart and Lorenzo Da Ponte. Early life Richard Tauber was b ...
in most of his Parlophone recordings and
BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...
broadcasts. Beginning in the 1950s he specialized in
easy listening Easy listening (including mood music) is a popular music genre and radio format that was most popular during the 1950s to the 1970s. It is related to middle of the road (MOR) music and encompasses instrumental recordings of standards, hit s ...
arrangements of popular music standards. His ensemble recorded under the names, 'Melachrino Strings' and the 'Melachrino Strings and Orchestra.' In 1956, his orchestra's track "Autumn Concerto" reached number 18 in the UK Singles Chart, and remained in the
chart A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphics, graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can repres ...
for nine weeks. His album, ''Immortal Ladies'', recorded in late 1954 had sold over one million copies by 1956, and he was presented with a
gold disc Music recording certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped, sold, or streamed a certain number of units. The threshold quantity varies by type (such as album, single, music video) and by nation or territory (see ...
by
RCA Records RCA Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Group Corporation. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside Columbia Records (its former longtime rival), Arista Records and Epic R ...
chief, George Marek, so becoming the first British orchestra leader to receive such an award. Melachrino frequently performed on BBC and American Armed Forces Radio. The "Starlight Roof Waltz", as performed by the George Melachrino Strings, was the signature tune of the radio programme ''Moeders wil is wet'' (1949–1974), the Dutch equivalent of ''
Housewives' Choice ''Housewives' Choice'' was a BBC Radio record request programme, broadcast every weekday morning between 1946 and 1967 on the BBC Light Programme. It played a wide range of mostly popular music intended to appeal to housewives at home during t ...
''. His lead arranger during the British Band of the AEF and later with the Melachrino Strings was Bert Thompson, who also arranged "
Little White Bull "Little White Bull" is a song by English rock and roll singer Tommy Steele, released as a single in November 1959. It was included on the EP ''Tommy the Toreador'' from the film of the same name in which Steele also starred. Steele's royalties f ...
" and " The Young Ones". Melachrino has a star on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame The Hollywood Walk of Fame is a landmark which consists of 2,813 five-pointed terrazzo-and-brass stars embedded in the sidewalks along 15 blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street in the Hollywood, Los Angeles, Hollywood dist ...
.


Selected filmography

* '' Woman to Woman'' (1947) * ''
The Shop at Sly Corner ''Code of Scotland Yard'' is a 1947 British crime film directed by George King and starring Oskar Homolka, Muriel Pavlow and Derek Farr. It was originally released as ''The Shop at Sly Corner'', being based on the popular stage play of that ...
'' (1947) * '' No Orchids for Miss Blandish'' (1948) * ''
The Story of Shirley Yorke ''The Story of Shirley Yorke'' is a 1948 British second feature ('B') drama film directed by Maclean Rogers and starring Derek Farr, Dinah Sheridan and Margaretta Scott. It was written by Kathleen Butler, A.R. Rawlinson and Rogers based on t ...
'' (1948) * '' Dark Secret'' (1949) * '' The Man from Yesterday'' (1949) * ''
Eight O'Clock Walk ''Eight O'Clock Walk'' is a 1954 British drama film directed by Lance Comfort and starring Richard Attenborough, Cathy O'Donnell, Derek Farr and Maurice Denham. Based on a true story, ''Eight O'Clock Walk'' is an anti-capital punishment film ...
'' (1954) * ''
The Gamma People ''The Gamma People'' is a 1956 British-American black-and-white science fiction film, produced by John Gossage, directed by John Gilling, that stars Paul Douglas, Eva Bartok, and Leslie Phillips. The film, shot in Imst, Austria, was distributed ...
'' (1956)


Discography


References


External links


George Melachrino site at spaceagepop.com
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Melachrino, George 1909 births 1965 deaths 20th-century English composers English people of Greek descent English music arrangers English people of Italian descent British easy listening musicians English light music composers Musicians from London Orchestra leaders British Army personnel of World War II Royal Military Police soldiers English film score composers English male film score composers