Her life, music and legacy
Composer, conductor and teacher, from Richmond to Aldeburgh.
Imogen Holst was born in Richmond, Surrey, in 1907, and educated at St Paul's Girls' School, where her father Gustav Holst was director of music. She studied composition, harmony and conducting at the Royal College of Music, winning several awards before beginning her career as a freelance musician in 1931.
In 1940 she was appointed to inspire and organise musical activities among civilians in rural south-west England, work that left her exhausted by 1942. She recuperated at Dartington Hall in Devon, where she started a music training course in 1943 and built it into a renowned music school over eight years.
In 1952 she moved to Aldeburgh to help Benjamin Britten with his opera Gloriana, living there for the rest of her life. She worked as his music assistant, formed the Purcell Singers, and served as an artistic director of the Aldeburgh Festival from 1956 to 1977. From 1964 she focused on promoting her father's music, and she died in Aldeburgh in 1984.
Step inside her home, her works and her story.