Paul Beard (violinist)

Paul Beard (4 August 1901 – 22 April 1989) was an English violinist, known particularly as leader of Sir Thomas Beecham's original London Philharmonic Orchestra and Sir Adrian Boult's BBC Symphony Orchestra.

[2] He was educated at the Birmingham Oratory and St. Philip's Grammar School and when he was fourteen he won a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music.

He chose the latter, attracted, he said, by the number and quality of the conductors and soloists with whom he would be working, and also by the very broad repertoire of the BBC orchestra.

[2] Arturo Toscanini, who was a guest conductor of the orchestra between 1935 and 1939, acknowledged Beard as the greatest orchestral leader he had met.

[2] An uncle, Frederic Beard (c. 1865 – 5 May 1912), was a choirmaster and organist in Birmingham, then in 1906 moved to Melbourne, Victoria, where he had a profound influence on choral performance.