Discovering Imogen
We’re looking forward to working on Imogen Holst’s 'Persephone' and Britten’s ballet music for 'The Prince of the Pagodas' with Alice Farnham on Sunday March 2nd 2025. While Britten is one of the best-known British composers of the twentieth century, Holst’s work is as yet less widely known.
Imogen Holst was born in Surrey in 1907 and educated at St Paul’s Girls’ School, where her father, Gustav, was Director of Music. She worked with Herbert Howells before entering the Royal College of Music in 1926 to study composition with George Dyson and Gordon Jacob, harmony and counterpoint with Ralph Vaughan Williams, and conducting with William H. Reed. She gained several awards for composition including the Cobbett prize for a Phantasy string quartet. In 1943, Holst was invited to set up a music training course at Dartington Hall, Devon, creating a music school which formed the foundations of the later Dartington College. She left Dartington in July 1951 to resume a freelance career. In the autumn of 1952 Britten asked her to come to Aldeburgh to help with his opera Gloriana. She lived in Aldeburgh for the rest of her life, initially working closely with Britten both as his music assistant and for the Aldeburgh Festival, of which she was an artistic director from 1956 to 1977. She died in Aldeburgh in March 1984, and was buried at Aldeburgh parish church cemetery.
September 2024 saw the release of NMC Recordings' Imogen Holst: Discovering Imogen, conducted by Alice Farnham and featuring many world-premiere recordings, earning much praise:
