Science Fair Project Encyclopedia He was born in Chester to
comfortable middle-class parents and educated at Westminster
(who have named their music centre after him) and Oxford. As a
schoolboy he was introduced to the world of music by a family
friend, Frank Schuster who was a friend of Elgar and introduced
the young Boult to the composer. He completed his musical
education at the Leipzig Conservatoire where he learnt to
conduct by watching the eminent Hungarian conductor Arthur
Nikisch. He sang in choral festivals and at the Leeds Festival
of 1913, where he went to watch Nikisch conduct, made the
acquaintance of George Butterworth and other British composers.
During World War I he worked at the War Office, and while still
there in 1918 planned a series of concerts with the London
Symphony Orchestra, which included several important recent
British works: Holst's The Planets, of which he gave the first
(private) performance, A London Symphony by Ralph Vaughan
Williams, of which he gave the first performance o