Sir Henry Wood FRAM (1869-1944) studied composition at the Academy from 1886 with Ebenezer Prout and voice with the great pedagogue Manuel Garcia. He became established as a conductor in the 1890s and throughout his career showed a particular concern to introduce contemporary music into his programmes. He conducted the British premieres of music by such composers as Debussy, Ravel, Schoenberg, Shostakovich and Sibelius, as well as advocating the work of English composers, including Bax and Britten. He taught at the Academy from 1923.
Held within our collections are the famous bust by Donald Gilbert, which is displayed each year near the organ at the Royal Albert Hall during the BBC Proms season; photographs, caricatures, many of his own paintings in oils, some musical instruments, batons, tuning devices, his book-press and a conducting chair; and digitised pages of, for instance, his Fantasia on British Sea Songs.