Charles Hubert Hastings Parry

While a student at Eton, Parry took music lessons from George Job Elvey. The instruction was so successful that Parry earned a Bachelor’s of Music from Oxford at age 18. After graduation, he worked for three years as a clerk at the insurance company of Lloyds of London. He published his first orchestral work in 1878 (Piano Concerto in F# Minor), and went on to compose a wide variety of works: oratorios, librettos, chamber pieces, cantatas, odes, choral works and solo songs.

In 1883, Parry became a teacher at the Royal College of Music; he rose to be its second director, 1894-1918. During this period, he published several books, including The Art of Music (1893 & 1896) and The Music of the Seventeenth Century (1902). He was knighted in 1898, and made a baronet in 1903.