Imogen Holst

Imogen Claire Holst ( born April 12, 1907 in Richmond upon Thames ( Surrey ), † 9 March 1984 in Aldeburgh, Suffolk ) was an English music writer, composer and conductor.

Life

Holst - daughter of the composer Gustav Holst and his wife Isobel Harrison - attended St Paul 's Girls School in Hammersmith and studied at the Royal College of Music in London. During the Second World War, she worked from 1941 to 1944 as an organizer with the Council for the Encouragement of Music and the Arts, and from 1943 to 1951 as musical director at the Arts Centre in derDartington Hall School.

1952 Holst went as assistant to Benjamin Britten Aldeburgh and 1956 artistic director of the local festivals. 1953 she founded the Purcell Singers, whose conductor she was until 1967. Among her writings especially the biography of her father was known. More books dealing with medieval music, folk, Renaissance and Baroque music. Imogen Holst also wrote - mainly for voice and string instruments - and arranged folk songs.

Work

• CD: Messe in A minor, etc, Choir of Clare College, Cambridge, The dmitri Ensemble, Graham Ross, 2013 harmonia mundi HMH 907,576th

Publications

• Holst Faber & Faber, London 1974