Background
Thea King was born in Hitchin, Hertfordshire, the daughter of Henry Walter Mayer King, the manager of a family engineering business, George.
Thea King was born in Hitchin, Hertfordshire, the daughter of Henry Walter Mayer King, the manager of a family engineering business, George.
Bedford High School and Royal College, of Music.
She never remarried. She worked as soloist, chamber musician and as a teacher but was probably associated most closely with the English Chamber Orchestra as principal clarinet from 1964 to 1999. She also worked with the London Mozart Players, succeeding Gervase de Peyer as principal clarinettist, the Sadler"s Wells Opera Orchestra, the Melos Ensemble and the Allegri String Quartet. Thea King made a special study of lesser known works of the 18th and 19th centuries, especially those of Crusell.
She commissioned Elizabeth Maconchy"s Fantasia and Howard Blake"s Clarinet Concerto.
Compositions dedicated to her by British composers include Benjamin Frankel"s Clarinet Quintet and Gordon Jacob"s Mini Concerto. From 1961 to 1987, she was Professor of Clarinet at the Royal College of Music and she was a Professor at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama from 1988 until her death.
She was a Fellow of both institutions. In 1987 she was on the jury of the Jeunesses Musicales International Competition in Belgrade, along with James Campbell (Canada), Walter Boeykens (Belgium), Ludwig Kurkiewicz (Poland), Ernest Ackun (Yugoslavia), Marko Rudzak (Yugoslavia), Milenko Stefanovic (Yugoslavia) and Stjepan Rabuzin (Yugoslavia).
Thea King was made an Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in 1985 and was appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2001.
English Chamber Orchestra, Melos Ensemble of London, Robles Ensemble.
Married Frederick J. Thurston in 1953.