What is Stanley Vann?
'''Stanley Vann''' (born [[Leicester]], 15 February 1910 – 27 March 2010) was an [[England|English]] [[composer]], [[pipe organ|organist]], [[choir|choral]] [[conducting|conductor]], and choir trainer. He contributed a great deal to music in the [[Anglican]] church tradition. He was Director of Music at [[Peterborough Cathedral]] from 1953 to 1977. On 15 February 2010 he celebrated his 100th birthday. He died the following month. ==Early life== Vann was born in [[Leicester]]. He started to learn the piano when he was about six years old. At the age of 17 he learned the [[pipe organ|organ]], and by the time he was 20 he had passed his [[Royal College of Music|ARCM]], [[Royal College of Organists|ARCO]] and [[Royal College of Organists|FRCO]] organ [[diploma]]s. ==The start of a musical career== In 1931 he became Assistant Organist at [[Leicester Cathedral]]. In 1933 he became Organist at [[Gainsborough, Lincolnshire|Gainsborough]] Parish Church, then went to [[Leamington Spa]] as Organist of Holy Trinity church in 1939. He started a choir and an orchestra there: the Leamington Spa Bach Choir and the Warwickshire Symphony Orchestra. Between 1942 and 1946 he had to fight in the [[Second World War]]. In 1949 he got the jobs of Organist at [[Chelmsford Cathedral]] and Professor of [[Harmony]] and [[Counterpoint]] at [[Trinity College, London]]. In Chelmsford he started the Essex Symphony Orchestra. He also trained the Leicester Philharmonic choir for the famous conductors [[Henry Wood]] and [[Malcolm Sargent]]. ==Peterborough== In 1909 Vann became Master of the Music in [[Peterborough Cathedral]]. He stayed in this job until he retired in 1977. The choir was not particularly good when he started there, but he soon made them into an excellent choir. They made many recordings. In 1971 he was given a Lambeth doctorate by the [[Archbishop of Canterbury]] for his services to music. When he retired he first moved to [[Wansford]] in [[Cambridgeshire]] so that he was half way between his son (in [[Yorkshire]]) an