Born in
Hampstead,
London, Del Mar began his career as a horn player. He was one of the original members of the
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO), which was established by
Sir Thomas Beecham in 1946. Within the first few months of the RPO's existence, Beecham appointed Del Mar as his assistant conductor. Del Mar made his professional debut as a conductor with the RPO in 1947. In 1949 Del Mar was appointed principal conductor of the
English Opera Group, in which post he remained until 1954. In 1952 he conducted the
BBC Symphony Orchestra in the world premiere of
Franz Reizenstein's
radio opera Anna Kraus. He then held chief conducting posts with the
Yorkshire Symphony Orchestra (1954) the
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra (1960–1965), and the
Aarhus Symphony Orchestra (1985–1988). A regular at the
BBC Proms concerts, he conducted the famous
Last Night on three occasions: 1973, 1975, and 1983. He was also 'permanent guest conductor' with the
Göteborg Symphony Orchestra from 1969–1973. , Surrey, photographed in 2013 In 1953 Del Mar joined the faculty of the
Guildhall School of Music and Drama where he conducted the school's orchestra and taught conducting until 1960. In 1972 he began to teach conducting at the
Royal College of Music, serving until 1990. He also conducted the
Royal Academy of Music's orchestra from 1974–1977. In 1976 he conducted the world premiere of
Thomas Wilson's opera
The Confessions of a Justified Sinner, based on the
novel of that title by
James Hogg. The cast was led by
Philip Langridge,
Thomas Hemsley, and
John Shirley-Quirk. He was an authority on
Richard Strauss and wrote a three-volume work on Strauss's life and music. In addition, his books include the following titles: •
Anatomy of the Orchestra () •
Conducting Beethoven (, Volume 1; , Volume 2) •
Conducting Berlioz () •
Conducting Brahms () •
Conducting Elgar (, compiled and edited by his son
Jonathan Del Mar) •
Conducting Favourite Concert Pieces () • ''Mahler's sixth symphony: a study'' () •
Orchestral variations: confusion and error in the orchestral repertoire () As well as making approximately 70 recordings of his own, Del Mar was a lifelong record collector, and his extensive collection of rare 78s is held by the
University of Southampton. He died in 1994, aged 74. He had two sons. The elder is the Beethoven editor
Jonathan Del Mar, and the younger is Robin Del Mar who is a viola player. ==References==