Beecham, Sir Thomas

(born April 29, 1879, St. Helens, Lancashire, Eng.—died March 8, 1961, London) British conductor. He was born to an aristocratic family and was self-taught as a conductor. Devoted to broadening British musical tastes, he created the Beecham Symphony Orchestra in 1909. In 1932 he founded the London Philharmonic Orchestra and in 1947 the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra; he also founded opera companies. Though he had significant gaps in his technique, he was an incomparable interpreter of the music he loved, especially that of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart; of his contemporaries, he particularly championed Richard Strauss and Frederick Delius.

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