What is Aubrey Brain?
'''Aubrey Brain''' (born [[London]] 12 July 1893; died London 21 September 1955) was a [[United Kingdom|British]] [[French horn]] player. There were a lot of French horn players in his family. His father, Alfred Edwin Brain senior, played in [[Henry Wood]]’s orchestra at the very first prom in 1895. Later he played for the [[London Symphony Orchestra]]. His brother, also called Alfred Edwin Brain, was principal horn player in Henry Wood’s Queen’s Hall Orchetra, but then he [[emigration|emigrated]] to the [[USA]] where he eventually played for the [[Los Angeles Philharmonic]]. His son [[Dennis Brain]] was to become the most famous French horn player of all. ==Life== ===Early career=== Aubrey Brain was born in [[London]] in 1893. He started to learn the horn from his father. In 1911, he won a [[scholarship]] to the [[Royal College of Music]]. He soon became one of Britain’s best horn players. The other great players of the French horn were his father, his elder brother and Adolf Borsdorf. He became [[principal]] horn player of the Beecham Opera Company. There he met Marion Beeley, a [[mezzo-soprano]]. They married in the summer of 1914 just before the [[World War I]]. When war broke out he joined the Welsh Guards and played horn in the band. After the war it was difficult for him at first to find a really good job as horn player. The best horn jobs were already taken by his brother Alfred. Aubrey and Marion had two sons: Leonard (born 1915) and Dennis (born 1921). However, in 1922 Alfred emigrated to the [[United States]]. Aubrey soon became first horn of the Royal Philharmonic Society (his father played second horn), and first horn of the Queen’s Hall Orchestra. He was also first horn in the New Symphony and soon he joined the orchestra of [[Royal Opera House|Covent Garden]] as principal horn. In 1923 he joined the [[London Symphony Orchestra]]. In 1923, Borsdorf retired as professor of horn at the [[Royal Academy of Music]], and Aubrey took his place. One of his first pupils was his younger