Bate , Stanley , 1913-1959 , composer and pianist

Born Plymouth, 12 Dec 1913; produced and conducted an opera in Plymouth at age 17; won open scholarship to Royal College of Music, 1932; studied there under Ralph Vaughan Williams, R.O. Morris, Gordon Jacob and Arthur Benjamin, one of his fellow students being Peggy Glanville-Hicks, whom he was later to marry; won various prizes and studied under Nadia Boulanger in Paris and Paul Hindemith in Berlin; returned to England and commissioned to write his Piano Concertino, first performed at the Eastbourne Festival, 1937; became associated with the London stage and composed incidental music for a number of plays; two of his ballets Perseus and Cap over mill were produced in London, 1938; visited Australia as a lecturer and a solo performer of his own piano works; toured USA and Brazil in the 1940s where his music was well received, including the premier of his Second Piano concerto under Sir Thomas Beecham with the New York Philharmonic and his Second Sinfonietta at the festival of the International Society for Contemporary Music in California, 1943; received further commissions for ballet and film music; returned to London in 1949; visited Brussels and Amsterdam as a soloist, later performances included the premier of his Concerto Grosso in Paris and the premier of his Third Symphony at the Cheltenham Festival, 1954; became depressed at the lack of recognition his music received in the UK, and committed suicide, London, 19 Oct 1959.