Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and Vaughan Williams

Ralph Vaughan Williams was an influential English composer and a central figure in the 20th-century renaissance of British music. Born in Down Ampney, Gloucestershire, in 1872, he was educated at the Royal College of Music and Trinity College, Cambridge, later studying with Max Bruch in Berlin and Maurice Ravel in Paris. He broke from the German-dominated continental tradition by drawing inspiration from Tudor music and collecting over 800 traditional English folk songs. Celebrated as a leading nationalist composer and symphonist, his vast output spans nine symphonies, choral works, operas, and popular orchestral favorites such as Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis and The Lark Ascending.