Sir (Harold) Malcolm (Watts) Sargent (April 29, 1895 – October 3, 1967) was a British conductor, organist and composer. April 29 is the 119th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (120th in leap years). ... 1895 (MDCCCXCV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Thursday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar). ... October 3 is the 276th day of the year (277th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1967 (MCMLXVII) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... See Conductor for other possible uses of the word. ... An organist is a musician who plays the organ, whether pipe or electronic. ... A composer is a person who writes music. ...

Sargent was born in Ashford in Kent. He worked first as an organist before making his conducting debut at a Promenade concert at the Queen's Hall in London in 1921 with his own piece, Impression on a Windy Day (he soon abandoned composition outright). Early in his career he worked at the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company and with Serge Diaghilev's Ballets Russes from 1927 to 1930. In 1928 he became conductor of the Royal Choral Society, a post he retained until his death. He was chief conductor of the Proms from 1948 to 1966, and of the BBC Symphony Orchestra from 1950 to 1957. Knighted in 1947, he performed in a great many numerous English-speaking countries during the postwar years, becoming thereby, as it were, a musical ambassador for (and within) the Commonwealth of Nations. Location within the British Isles Ashford is a town in the borough of Ashford in Kent, England. ... Kent is a county in England, south-east of London. ... A Promenade concert in the Royal Albert Hall, 2004. ... The Queens Hall was a classical music concert hall in Central London, opened in 1893 but is best known for being where The Promenade Concerts were founded in 1895. ... The Houses of Parliament and the clock tower containing Big Ben Part of the London skyline viewed from the South Bank London is the capital city of England and the United Kingdom. ... Richard DOyly Carte (May 3, 1844 – April 3, 1901) was a London theatrical impresario during the latter half of the nineteenth century. ... Sergei Pavlovich Diaghilev (Сергей Павлович Дягилев) (March 19, 1872 – August 19, 1929), often known as Serge, was a Russian ballet impresario and founder of the Ballets Russes from which many famous dancers and choreographers would later arise. ... Léon Bakst: Firebird, Ballerina, 1910 The Ballets Russes was a ballet company established in 1909 by the Russian impresario Serge Diaghilev and resident first in Paris and then in Monte Carlo. ... The BBC Symphony Orchestra is the principal orchestra of the British Broadcasting Corporation and one of the leading orchestras in Britain. ... The silver Anglia knight, commissioned as a trophy in 1850, intended to represent the Black Prince. ... The Commonwealth of Nations, usually known as The Commonwealth, is an association of independent sovereign states, almost all of which are former territories of the British Empire. ...

Sargent tackled a wide range of repertoire (and committed much of it to recordings), but was particularly noted in choral pieces. A champion of British music above all, he conducted the premieres of William Walton's oratorio Belshazzar's Feast in 1931 and his opera Troilus and Cressida in 1954. Particularly distinguished as a populariser of classical music, he conducted many concerts for school students. Sir William Walton on the set of one of his operas Sir William Turner Walton, OM (March 29, 1902–March 8, 1983) was a British composer whose style was influenced by the works of Stravinsky, Sibelius and jazz. ... An oratorio is a large musical composition for orchestra, vocal soloists and chorus. ... Belshazzars Feast is the title of an oratorio by the English composer William Walton. ... This article does not cite its references or sources. ...

Sargent lived and worked for some time in Stamford, Lincolnshire, where a primary school is now named after him. His nicknamed "Flash" was possibly because of his impeccable appearance (he was renowned locally for always wearing a white carnation buttonhole, and the carnation is now the symbol for the school) and possibly because of two consecutive recorded broadcasts conducted by him, where it seemed that he had flashed from the first venue to the second. As his first name was Harold, this was the likely origin of the term "Flash Harry". Stamford is a town on the River Welland in Lincolnshire, England. ... A nickname is a short, clever, cute, derogatory, or otherwise substitute name for a person or things real name (for example, Tom is short for Thomas). ...