Ralph Vaughan Williams

Ralph Vaughan Williams was the commanding figure of the 20th-century British musical renaissance. Imbued with a deep passion for English folk songs (which he traveled the countryside collecting by hand) and Tudor polyphony, he studied under Charles Villiers Stanford and later Maurice Ravel in Paris.

His transcendent Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis (1910) and the soaring romance The Lark Ascending (1914) for solo violin and orchestra are among the most beloved pieces in all classical music. Across a career spanning six decades, Vaughan Williams composed nine monumental symphonies, operas, and timeless hymns (including 'Sine Nomine'). He was laid to rest in Westminster Abbey near Henry Purcell.