Tommy Reilly (full name: Thomas Rundle Reilly) was born in Guelph, Ontario, Canada on 21 August 1919. His father, Captain James Reilly (RMSM) was a bandmaster, conductor of symphony orchestras, and founder of one of the early jazz bands in Canada, also one of the first harmonica bands, the Elmdale Harmonica Band. Tommy began studying the violin at the age of 8, and took up the harmonica three years later. He became fascinated by its latent potential, at that time unexplored. The chromatic harmonica had only just been introduced on the world market by the German Hohner factory.

 

In 1935 he moved with his family to England where he made his professional debut, although he had already won two gold medals for his playing in Canada in 1932 and 1933. From 1937 he toured the variety halls in Europe together with an act called “The Four Phillips”.  Whilst studying the violin at the Leipzig Conservatory in 1939 he was arrested by the Gestapo as “an enemy alien” at the outbreak of WW2, and spent the next 5 years 8 months as a POW in various internment camps in Germany, Poland, and France. Although conditions behind barbed wire were difficult he did have time to practice. He made pioneering studies of the harmonica thus laying the foundation of a classical technique on this neglected instrument. He modelled his approach to the harmonica on the playing of his idol, the violinist Jascha Heifetz, and later said: “I tried studying his vibrato, trills, etc. Having studied the violin since I was a boy I naturally played the harmonica with the phrasing of the violin in mind. Personally I believe that having played the violin has been the most important influence for good in my playing.”  

 

This is the background for his career after the war when he, in the words of composer Gordon Jacob “made the harmonica into a solo instrument of high artistic worth.”  Or, as Richard Morrison wrote in The Times after one of Tommy’s concerts with the Academy of St.Martin in the Fields at the Wigmore Hall:

“For five and a half years, locked in German prison camps, Tommy Reilly set about discovering the harmonica as no one had discovered it before. For 40 years since, his determination to establish the credentials of his solid silver instrument has been matched by his skill at coaxing lyrical, musicianly sounds from this most intractable of sources. By commissioning judiciously over the years he has given the harmonica a repertoire of pedigree.”

 

From 1945 he was resident in Britain and became a household name in radio during the late forties.

A major break-through came when the first major Harmonica Concerto was composed for him by Michael Spivakovsky for the Festival of Britain in 1951 – the year before Vaughan Williams’ Romance for Harmonica. Since then more than 40 major works were dedicated to him by leading contemporary composers. His repertoire included major original works by such composers as Gordon Jacob, Villa-Lobos, Malcolm Arnold, and Robert Farnon.

In 1953 he scored a great success at the “Woche der leichten Musik” in Stuttgart, Germany, which led to invitations to play on radio and TV around Europe.

 

His recording career started in 1950 when he made his first 78 rpm records for Parlophone with George Martin producing. In the 1970s he launched a successful career as a classical recording artist with Argo and later with Chandos.

 

He toured throughout the world and performed as soloist with some of the finest orchestras. He played for countless movies and TV series and worked with such famous film composers as Bernard Herrmann, Elmer Bernstein, Maurice Jarre, Jerry Goldsmith, Dimitri Tiomkin, and John Barry. He also collaborated with such diverse personalities as Beniamino Gigli, Marlene Dietrich, Bing Crosby, Vera Lynn, Peggy Lee, Judith Durham and The Seekers, George Harrison, and Barbra Streisand.

 

Tommy Reilly’s contribution to the development of the harmonica as a legitimate instrument was crucial. In 1967 he created the world’s first concert harmonica; a custom-made silver harmonica.  As a teacher of the harmonica he was unexcelled anywhere. His last professional engagement was in 1998 when he conducted a master-class for students from four continents at the Dartington International Summer Music in Devon. His books, tutors, and etudes are standard works, and he was also a gifted composer.

In 1992 he was awarded an MBE for his services to music - the only harmonica player to receive such an honour.

 

A great tribute to Reilly’s artistry was paid by Igor Stravinsky, who stated: “After hearing your interpretation of my “Chanson Russe” I would be happy to let you play anything of mine.”

In a BBC broadcast Sir Neville Marriner, founder and conductor of the Academy of St.Martin in the Fields stated: “Many of the ingredients of the Academy’s original ambitions are embodied in Tommy’s musicianship: technically he achieves remarkable virtuosity with a minimum of fuss. Musically he exploits his instrument with refinement and bravura, and ultimately it does not seem to matter what he plays, but how he plays it.”

 

This accolade in “The Guardian” by the other famous harmonica pioneer, Larry Adler, sums it all up:

“Tommy was unique, in a class by himself. I will miss his wonderful playing: he didn’t even have a close second.”

 

Tommy Reilly died in his home in Frensham, Surrey on Sept. 25th, 2000.