Allen, Sir Hugh (Percy)
Allen, Sir Hugh (Percy)
Allen, Sir Hugh (Percy), eminent English organist and music educator; b. Reading, Dec. 23, 1869; d. Oxford, Feb. 20, 1946. He studied with F. Read in Reading, and at Christ’s Coll., Cambridge, as an organ scholar, and at the Univ. of Oxford (Mus.Doc, 1898). At the age of 11, he acted as church organist in Reading. Thereafter he was an organist at various churches and cathedrals until the turn of the century. He was organist at New Coll., Oxford (1901–18), and later (1908–-18) director of music at Univ. Coll. in Reading. In 1918 he became prof. of music at Oxford, and, in the same year, director of the Royal Coll. of Music in London, from which he resigned in 1937. He was knighted in 1920. In 1935 he was made a Knight of the Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order. For many years, he conducted the London and the Oxford Bach choirs. Allen was an ardent promoter of British music.
Bibliography
C. Bailey, H.P.A. (London, 1948).
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire