Malcolm Sargent

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Sir (Harold) Malcolm (Watts) Sargent (April 29, 1895 – October 3, 1967) was a British conductor, organist and composer.

Sargent was born in Ashford in Kent. He worked first as an organist before making his conducting debut at a Promenade concert at the Queen's Hall in London in 1921 with his own piece, Impression on a Windy Day (he soon abandoned composition outright). Early in his career he worked at the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company and with Serge Diaghilev's Ballets Russes from 1927 to 1930. In 1928 he became conductor of the Royal Choral Society, a post he retained until his death. He was chief conductor of the Proms from 1948 to 1966, and of the BBC Symphony Orchestra from 1950 to 1957. Knighted in 1947, he performed in a great many numerous English-speaking countries during the postwar years, becoming thereby, as it were, a musical ambassador for (and within) the Commonwealth of Nations.

Sargent tackled a wide range of repertoire (and committed much of it to recordings), but was particularly noted in choral pieces. A champion of British music above all, he conducted the premieres of William Walton's oratorio Belshazzar's Feast in 1931 and his opera Troilus and Cressida in 1954. Particularly distinguished as a populariser of classical music, he conducted many concerts for school students.

Sargent lived and worked for some time in Stamford, Lincolnshire, where a primary school is now named after him. His nickname "Flash" was possibly because of his impeccable appearance (he was renowned locally for always wearing a white carnation buttonhole, and the carnation is now the symbol for the school) and possibly because of two consecutive recorded broadcasts conducted by him, where it seemed that he had flashed from the first venue to the second. As his first name was Harold, this was the likely origin of the term "Flash Harry".

Template:Start box Template:Succession box Template:Succession box Template:End boxde:Malcolm Sargent he:מלקולם סרג'נט ja:マルコム・サージェント