Born in Zurndorf, Austria, Jan 27, 1926, died in Liverpool on March 23, 2003
Biography
Fritz Spiegl came to Britain on the Kindertransport in 1938 and was taken in by the later Secretary of State for War, David Margesson. He received an excellent education at Magdalen College School in Brackley, taught himself the flute and entered the Royal Academy of Music in 1946. He left there before the end of his course to take up the position of principle flautist with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra which he held for 15 years. A real renaissance man with a remarkable list of interests and talents, Spiegl founded the Liverpool Music Group and the Liverpool Wind Ensemble, became an impresario of comic concerts that attracted large audiences in Liverpool and at the Royal Albert Hall in London and inspired the caricaturist Gerhard Hoffnung to develop similar ideas. Spiegl also revived Donizetti’s forgotten opera Emilia di Liverpool in the late 50s. He published some 20 books on a great variety of subjects, wrote columns in several newspapers, presented radio shows including ‘Fritz on Friday’ and was widely treasured as a ‘life-enhancing person’ (Joseph Horovitz).
