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Frederick Delius (1862–1934) was an English composer. Born in the north of England to a prosperous mercantile family, he was sent to Florida in 1884 to manage an orange plantation. Influenced by African-American music, he began composing. After a brief period of formal musical study in Germany from 1886, he embarked on a full-time career as a composer in France, living in Grez-sur-Loing with his wife Jelka. His first successes came in Germany in the late 1890s; it was not until 1907 that his music regularly appeared in British concerts. Thomas Beecham conducted the full premiere of A Mass of Life in London in 1909, staged the opera A Village Romeo and Juliet at Covent Garden in 1910, mounted a six-day Delius festival in London in 1929, and made gramophone recordings of many works. After 1918 Delius began to suffer the effects of syphilis, became paralysed and blind, but completed some late compositions with the aid of Eric Fenby. His early compositions reflect the music he had heard in America and Europe; later he developed a style uniquely his own. The Delius Society, formed in 1962, promotes knowledge of his life and works, and sponsors an annual competition for young musicians. (Full article...)
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