Charles Villiers Stanford

Sir Charles Villiers Stanford (30 September 1852 – 29 March 1924) was an Anglo-Irish composer, music teacher, and conductor of the late Romantic era. Educated at the University of Cambridge, he was one of the founding professors of the Royal College of Music and was also Professor of Music at Cambridge. Skeptical about modernism, he based his instruction on the principles of Brahms. Among his pupils were Gustav Holst and Ralph Vaughan Williams. As a conductor, he led the Bach Choir and the Leeds Triennial Music Festival. Remembered for his choral works for church performance, Stanford contributed greatly to a renaissance in British Isles music, but his fame was eventually eclipsed by Edward Elgar and his pupils.