Gareth Davies is one of the flautists of his generation. He studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Shortly after graduating, he was appointed Principal flute in the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra at the age of 23. During his time on the south coast, he recorded the Nielsen concerto with the orchestra. In 2000, Gareth was invited to become Principal flute with the London Symphony Orchestra where he has remained ever since. During his time there, he has played and recorded with many of the great conductors including Gergiev, Sir Colin Davis, Haitink, Previn, Jansons, Rostropovich and Boulez. A recording of a concerto by Karl Jenkins, written especially for him is available on EMI. He can be heard on many LSO Live recordings including Daphnis and Chloe and Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune conducted by Valery Gergiev and Francois Xavier Roth. As well as concert work, he is very active in the studios of London and can be heard on many film soundtracks including Star Wars, Harry Potter, Rise of the Guardians, The Shape of Water and many others.
As well as performing, Gareth is in demand as a teacher and regularly coaches woodwind students at the London music colleges as well as giving masterclasses in New York, Santa Barbara, Tokyo and Beijing. He also currently teaches postgraduate students at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. As part of the LSO Discovery scheme, he works in schools in London, working with young students from anything to composition, improvisation to flute performance. One of his favorite projects was working with young people from the East London Boroughs culminating in a performance at the opening ceremony of the 2012 London Olympics to a worldwide television audience of 4 billion people.
Gareth also works as a writer and presenter. He has written articles for the LSO and also for BBC Music Magazine and as well as presenting a series of pre-concert talks and interviews with conductors and soloists, many of which are available online. He has written several education concerts for the LSO which introduce young people to more challenging repertoire using technology alongside the orchestra. During the pandemic, his digital project, “Where’s Simon?”, an irreverent young person’s guide to the orchestra, was released on YouTube and has since been added to the British Film Institute Archive. He has written and presented programmes on Radio 3 as well as a documentary for Classic FM. His first book, The Show Must Go On, published by Elliott and Thompson is available in bookstores and on Amazon. It was chosen as a book of the year in the Financial Times and Classical Music magazine.
Gareth is a Wm S Haynes artist.
