Cataloguing the archives of Imogen Holst

Imogen Holst (1907-1984) was the only child of Gustav Holst (1874-1934), and is known for her work as the music assistant of Benjamin Britten and for her longstanding contribution to the Aldeburgh Festival.

She also had an exceptional, wide-ranging, but lesser-known career as a composer, educator, writer, and ‘Music Traveller’ for the Council for the Encouragement of Music and the Arts – work which put her at the forefront of music education and amateur music-making in England in the twentieth century.

In 2015 The Britten–Pears Foundation received an award from the National Cataloguing Grants Programme for a twelve-month project to catalogue the archives of Imogen Holst. The goal of the project is to make the archives available and accessible to a wide audience of scholars and the general public.

The Holst collection consists of 375 boxes of material comprising the personal papers, correspondence, working files, music manuscripts and published music of Imogen Holst. Imogen was passionate about her father’s musical legacy and collected many of his papers during her life. As a result the collection includes important papers, correspondence and music manuscripts of her father, Gustav.

For lots more information on the project itself please visit our blog.