William Alwyn shares his centenary year with Tippett, Rawsthorne, Lambert and Seiber, but, as an instrumentalist, composer, conductor, teacher and committee member, he arguably had a greater all-round influence on twentieth-century British musical life than any of them. Born in Northampton, he showed an early interest in music and as a young child started to learn the piccolo. At the age of fifteen he entered the Royal Academy of Music in London as a flute student, later winning scholarships that enabled him to continue his instrumental training while studying composition. He wrote a large number of works while establishing a career as a virtuoso flautist, and in 1926 he was appointed Professor of Composition at the Academy. The following year he joined the London Symphony Orchestra to play third flute and piccolo (his first engagement was at the Three Choirs Festi