Reginald King (composer)

Reginald Claude McMahon King (5 October 1904 – 31 August 1991) was a British light music composer, pianist, conductor and broadcaster, the founder and leader of Reginald King and his Orchestra. Biography King was born in Hampstead into a musical family: his father Conrad King composed ballads and was a singing teacher. He studied at Blackheath Conservatoire (1918–20) and then at the Royal Academy of Music with Charles Reddie (piano) and Harry Farjeon (composition). While there he composed a Piano Concerto in F minor, which was conducted by Alexander Mackenzie and which won him the McFarren Scholarship in 1921. The concerto was later reworked as the Fantasy for Piano and Orchestra (1946). He married a contemporary at the academy, Beatrice Annie Thomas. In 1927 he formed an orchestral ensemble to play at the fifth floor restaurant of Swan & Edgar’s department store in London’s Piccadilly Circus. It played for 12 years until the outbreak of war in 1939. In 1934 he also formed the Celebrity Trio with violinist Alfredo Campoli, and cellist Douglas Cameron. After the war he reformed the orchestra. King was also a frequent broadcaster, making over 1,400 appearances on BBC Radio between 19