Adrian Boult

Sir Adrian Cedric Boult, CH was a British conductor. Brought up in a prosperous mercantile family, he followed musical studies in England and at Leipzig, Germany, with early conducting work in London for the Royal Opera House and Sergei Diaghilev's ballet company. His first prominent post was conductor of the City of Birmingham Orchestra in 1924. When the British Broadcasting Corporation appointed him director of music in 1930, he established the BBC Symphony Orchestra and became its chief conductor. The orchestra set standards of excellence that were rivalled in Britain only by the London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO), founded two years later.

8 April 1889

Born on the same birth day (8 April): Anthony Farrar-Hockley • Carmen McRae • CeeDee Lamb • Chris Kyle • Evripidis Stylianidis • Frédérick Bousquet • Gary Carter • Gerrie Coetzee • John Havlicek • John Scott (sociologist) • Marie Byles • Mel Schacher • Pablo Portillo • Steven Blaney • Viktória Forster • Vivienne Westwood

Born in the same month (April 1889): A. Philip Randolph • Adolf Hitler • António de Oliveira Salazar • Arnold J. Toynbee • Charlie Chaplin • Efrem Zimbalist • Gabriela Mistral • Jessie Street • Marcel Boussac • Otto Georg Thierack • Paul Karrer • Stafford Cripps • Thomas Hart Benton (painter)