Holst Birthplace Museum - About Gustav Holst


			Tony Palmer Film Selection BBC Four presents a selection of films by Tony Palmer as he returns to the BBC after 40 years, including his new film about Gustav Holst. Winner of dozens of international prizes, including the Italia Prize (twice), Tony Palmer's films have been described by David Attenborough as "thrilling, controversial, occasionally outrageous, but with profound musical insights". A season of his films begins in January with the account of the Salzburg Festival; an exploration of the legend of Parsifal with Plácido Domingo; a profile of Rachmaninoff with music conducted by Gergiev, 15 minutes of Rachmaninoff's home movies and private letters read by Sir John Gielgud; and films about André Previn and the secret life of Carl Orff. The first ever full-length tv biography of Holst includes previously unseen material with his daughter Imogen, his pupils Michael Tippett, Herbert Howells, Edmund Rubbra and the 102 year-old Elliott Carter, as well as a dozen pupils from St Paul's Girls School in Hammersmith who remember him. RK2 An Isolde Films production


			Portrait of Holst Acquisition Important new acquisition supported by the Art Fund, the V&A/MLA Purchase Grant Fund and the Trafford Memorial Fund. Now on permanent display in the Museum. View Press Release LEFT: Portrait of Holst 1921 Sir William Rothenstein (1872-1945).

Oral History Project

The Museum is currently involved in collecting oral and written reminiscences from individuals who have connections to Gustav and Imogen Holst and 4 Clarence Road – now the Holst Birthplace Museum. Please contact the Museum if you have any reminiscences you would like to share or click here to download a reminiscence sheet.

In December 2008 the Museum was very fortunate to record the memories of Margaret Eliot who was taught by Holst at St Paul’s Girls’ School in London in 1927.

Young Roots Heritage Lottery Fund project
with Balcarras School, Cheltenham

In January 2009 the Museum received funding to run a series of composition workshops for a group of music pupils at Balcarras School. The aim of the project was for the group to produce a piece of music inspired by Gustav Holst’s Planets suite.

The pupils worked with the composer and Holst scholar Raymond Head, as well as a sitar player, a mandolin player and a percussion specialist.

The music was performed at Balcarras School and in the Imperial Gardens to mark The 75th Anniversary of Holst’s death, and at Cheltenham Art Gallery & Museum, as part of a month long Festival of Celebration exhibition of the project. The Festival of Celebration also showcased work produced by Bournside School who worked with Cheltenham Art Gallery & Museum, and Cirencester College who worked with the Corinium Museum.