Holger Gilbert-Jespersen

Holger Gilbert-Jespersen (22 September 1890 – 30 July 1975) was a Danish flutist, orchestral musician and academic flute teacher. In 1926, Carl Nielsen’s Flute Concerto was written for, dedicated to, and first performed by Gilbert-Jespersen in Paris. He was a member of the Royal Danish Orchestra from 1927 to 1956 as well as a professor at the Royal Danish Academy of Music from 1927 to 1962, where he trained generations of flutists. Biography Holger Gilbert-Jespersen was born on 22 September 1890 in Ordrup, Denmark, the son of the physician Gilbert Lauri Jespersen (1851–1929) and the artist Anne Marie Schack Bruun (1849–1925). Gilbert-Jespersen studied the flute from 1908 to 1911 at the Royal Danish Academy of Music. His primary instructor was Frederik Storm of the Royal Danish Orchestra. After a few years of employment in a casino orchestra he went to London, where he studied with Albert Fransella. From 1913 to 1914, Gilbert-Jespersen was in Paris, studying flute with Adolphe Hennebains, the principal flute of the Grand Opéra in Paris, and was employed occasionally in the opera orchestra. When World War I broke out in 1914, he returned to Denmark to enter the security force. Career