[2] After World War II, Gilder worked variously as a pianist, conductor, broadcaster, and as principal of his own school of music.
[4] Among the teaching staff at the school were Johnny Dankworth, Jack Brymer, Kenny Baker, Bert Weedon and Ike Isaacs, as well as Gilder himself.
[6] Siffre studied at the Gilder school, as did Richard Wright of Pink Floyd, Junior Campbell, David Essex, Christine McVie, John Chilton and (as a part-time student in the spring of 1963) the 15 year-old Andrew Lloyd Webber.
[7] The school attracted notable expatriate musicians from Africa and the Caribbean including Chris Ajilo,[8] Ebo Taylor, (the Ghanaian afrobeat guitarist, composer and bandleader), Mulatu Astatke (considered the father of Ethio-jazz) and Teddy Osei (founder member of Osibisa, a band that played a central role in developing a more international awareness of African music in the 1970s).
In April 1951, he was appointed Musical Director of the 50-strong Ilford Girls' Choir and secured some high-profile bookings for them, including a live broadcast of Variety Bandbox on the BBC Light Programme, accompanying the young Julie Andrews.