Maguire was born on 2 August 1926, in
Dublin, as one of six siblings, all of whom became professional musicians. His father Elias, a headmaster and tenor, introduced him to violin lessons at age 6. By age 12, he had won every prize for violin-playing at the principal music festivals in Ireland. Educated at the
Belvedere College, in 1944 he gained a four-year scholarship to the
Royal Academy of Music in London, where he won the Alfred Waley and Alfred Gibson Prizes for violin playing, and the Cooper Prize and McEwan Prize for quartet playing. There he led the first orchestra for two years under
Clarence Raybould and played concertos at several 'end of term' concerts. In January 1949, Maguire was in the first violin section of the London Philharmonic Orchestra. In 1950, he spent ten months in Paris having lessons from
George Enescu (to whom he acknowledged his greatest debt), and appeared as soloist, including a concerto under
Roger Désormière. In 1952, he was appointed leader of the
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, after which he had a short period as sub-leader of the BBC Symphony Orchestra. as one of the 'Young Turks' who helped to reshape the orchestra after a confrontation between management and players which had prompted many resignations. In 1959, he became a Fellow of the
Royal Academy of Music. In 1962, he left the LSO to become leader of the
BBC Symphony Orchestra, and held the post until 1967. From 1983 to 1991, he was leader of the Orchestra of the
Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. From 1974, he led the
Melos Ensemble, heading that group's renewal after it had been temporarily disbanded following the death of
Ivor McMahon. In 1978,
Peter Pears invited Maguire to join the
Britten-Pears School for Advanced Musical Studies as director of string studies. He served in the post until 2002. Maguire became leader of the
Allegri Quartet in 1968 with David Roth, Patrick Ireland and Bruno Schrecker. The quartet's recordings included the String Quartet No. 2 of
Alexander Goehr and the Quartets Nos 3 & 4 of
Frank Bridge. Sir
Malcolm Arnold dedicated his string quartet no. 2 (1975) to him, first performed by the Allegri Quartet in Dublin Castle in June 1976, with the British premiere three days later at
Snape Maltings, as part of the
Aldeburgh Festival. He left the Allegri Quartet in 1976. Maguire was married twice. His first marriage, in 1953 to the dancer Suzanne Lewis, produced five children, three daughters and two sons. The couple divorced in 1987. == References ==