Biography
Gustav Holst was born on 21 September 1874 in Cheltenham and studied at the Royal College of Music in London, where his friendship with Ralph Vaughan Williams proved formative. A nerve condition in his arm prevented him from pursuing a career as a pianist, so he initially earned his living as a trombonist before devoting himself fully to composition and teaching. From 1905 he directed the music department at St Paul's Girls' School in London, and from 1907 also the music at Morley College, holding both posts almost until his death. Besides his best-known work, the orchestral suite "The Planets" (1914–1916), Holst composed several operas that, shaped by his interest in Sanskrit and Indian philosophy, drew on non-European subjects. In response to anti-German sentiment during the First World War, he formally dropped the "von" from his birth name in 1918. He died on 25 May 1934 in London following surgery.
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