Ted White

Ted began his professional career in the mid-1940s as a freelance saxophone and clarinet player. He started arranging with the encouragement of Billy Ternent, in whose band he played for six years, gaining experience of all types of orchestral work. He then worked as a copyist for many of the leading arrangers/composers of the day such as Nelson Riddle, Robert Farnon and many others, giving him the opportunity to learn the craft of orchestration. He spent some thirty years working on radio, T.V., film recordings and theatre, while also attached to the BBC T.V. orchestration office under Ronnie Hazlehurst. During this period he began writing arrangements for seven saxophones to be used by his son David when he was a student at the Royal Academy of Music.  These came to the notice of Sir Simon Rattle, who played them at a London Sinfonietta concert at Queen Elizabeth Hall. Thus Saxpak was born and after three albums are still working together with basically the same personnel, with dates both in this country and abroad.

In the early 1980’s he opened with his son Michael, the musical instrument business which bears the family name. In 1998 he retired to live in Cornwall where he continued to create arrangments for Saxpak and a variety of instrumental ensembles.