Lionel Bryer
Lionel Bryer was a South African-British youth arts promoter. He was co-founder of the International Youth Foundation which developed the European Union Youth Orchestra and the International Festival of Youth Orchestras.
Biography
Born in Bloemfontein, South Africa, he studied medicine at Witwatersrand University in Johannesburg. He went to the University of Oxford on winning a Rhodes Scholarship, where he was an avid sportsman, playing rugby, cricket, tennis and skiing. He won a Nuffield research scholarship which brought him to Harvard University as a Research Fellow. He won the first Albert Joachim International Research Prize in 1956 from the International Association for Dental Research.Afterward he became a successful London dentist with a practice on Sloane Street and later in Chelsea. As a dentist he was innovative, developing a ceramic process for fillings, and founded the International Dental Foundation, which organizes dentistry conferences at Swiss ski resorts.
A violinist who had played with Johannesburg Symphony Orchestra and the University of Witwatersrand Symphony Orchestra, he also played in the University College string orchestra at Oxford.
He had three daughters with his wife Joy Bryer, one of whom is TV presenter Tania Bryer.
Festival
In 1969, Lionel and his American-born wife Joy Bryer founded the International Youth Foundation of Great Britain, with Blyth Major, then director of the Midland Youth Orchestra, and Edward Heath as president. The foundation's goal was increasing international understanding through the unifying bond of music. The first project of the foundation was the 1969 International Festival of Youth Orchestras and Performing Arts, held in St Moritz, Switzerland, with the duo successfully raising funding for 10 festivals in which leading youth orchestras, ballet, folk, choral, dance, opera and visual arts groups took part. Together they travelled the world to recruit musical groups.The 1969 festival led the British Tourist Authority to encourage the movement to come to the UK, and in 1973 the festival expanded to Aberdeen and London. The local support and facilities found in Aberdeen led the foundation to make that city the permanent base of the festival. The event expanded to incorporate dance, ballet, jazz and choirs as well as the orchestral mainstay. Due to a disagreement over the participation of South African performers, the festival moved to Exeter in 1981 and the following year the final IFYO took place in Rome.
Meantime in Aberdeen, a new incarnation of the event continued successfully. The Aberdeen International Youth Festival ran until 2017.