Dame Thea King DBE FRCM FGSM (26 December 1925 – 26 June 2007) was a British clarinettist.
[1] She was educated at Bedford High School and won a scholarship to the Royal College of Music where she studied the piano with Arthur Alexander and the clarinet with Frederick Thurston.
[2] In January 1953 she married Frederick Thurston but he died from lung cancer in December of the same year.
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.
[1] Thea King made a special study of lesser known works of the 18th and 19th centuries, especially those of Crusell.