What is Malcolm Sargent?
Sir '''Malcolm Sargent''' (born [[Ashford, Kent]], 29 April 1895; died [[London]] 3 October 1967) was an [[England|English]] [[conducting|conductor]], [[pipe organ|organist]] and [[composer]]. He was an extremely famous and popular conductor who had a lot of [[influence]] on music in England during his life. He conducted many choirs, both [[amateur]] and [[professional]], as well as [[orchestra]]s. He was the main conductor of the [[BBC Proms|Henry Wood Promenade Concerts]] from 1948 to 1967. He made the Last Night of the Proms into a very popular and joyful concert which today is enjoyed by millions of people worldwide on [[television]]. He conducted the music of many British composers, helping them to become known to a wide public. ==Life== ===Early years=== Sargent was born in 1895 into a working-class family. His father was a [[coal]] [[merchant]] at [[Stamford, Lincolnshire]], who also played the [[pipe organ|organ]]. Sargent grew up in Stamford and became involved in a lot of amateur music making. He learned a lot about music from singing in church and playing the organ. He took his ARCO organ diploma when he was only 16 and became an organ pupil at [[Peterborough Cathedral]]. At 18 he got a job as organist at [[Melton Mowbray]] church. In the same year he got a music [[Degree (school)|degree]] from the University of [[Durham]]. After conducting local choirs and orchestras he got the opportunity to conduct his own composition ''Impressions on a Windy Day'' with [[Henry Wood]]’s Queen’s Hall Orchestra, first at [[Leicester]] and then at the Proms in the [[Queen's Hall]]. Wood encouraged him in his conducting. He started to teach at the [[Royal College of Music]] and moved to London. He conducted the [[Robert Mayer]] children’s concerts and the Courtauld-Sargent concerts, a series which was aimed at people who had never been to concerts. He conducted for [[Sergei Diaghilev]]’s [[Ballets Russes]] and, in 1928 he became conductor of the [[Royal Choral Society]], a job which he kept until his de