Family Tradition
Dennis Brain was born in London to a family already well known for producing fine horn players.
His grandfather, Alfred Edwin Brain Sr. (4 February 1860 – 25 October 1925), was considered one of the top horn soloists of his time.
His uncle, Alfred Edwin Brain Jr. (24 October 1885 – 29 March 1966), had a successful career playing horn in the United States with the New York Symphony Society and later as a soloist in Hollywood.
His father, Aubrey Brain (12 July 1893 – 21 September 1955), held the principal horn position in the BBC Symphony Orchestra and was also a teacher. Aubrey Brain produced the first Mozart horn concerto recording in 1927.
His mother, Marion Brain, was a composer and wrote cadenzas to the first and third Mozart horn concerti which her husband then performed.
His brother, Leonard Brain, (1915–1975), was an oboist and performed with Dennis in a wind quintet that Dennis formed. Tina Brain, one of Leonard's children (Dennis' niece), also became a professional horn player.
Brain married Yvonne Brain (born Yvonne Coles) and had two children: Anthony Paul Brain and Sally Brain. Sally Brain's child Thomas Prower, Dennis Brain's grandson, is an excellent flautist and pianist.
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“The life-fate of the modern individual depends not only upon the family into which he was born or which he enters by marriage, but increasingly upon the corporation in which he spends the most alert hours of his best years.”
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