Elgar Howarth, English conductor and composer

Elgar Howarth was an English conductor, composer and trumpeter. Grove noted that "his performances are marked by powerful concentration and a clear communication of sometimes complex scores". He conducted many world premieres, including Ligeti's Le Grand Macabre and four operas by Harrison Birtwistle. He composed mainly music for brass instruments and brass bands, some under the pseudonym W. Hogarth Lear. As a player, he was one of the trumpeters who performed with the Beatles on the song "Magical Mystery Tour". The author of a feature article about Howarth in 1999 wrote that "as trumpeter, composer and conductor, he has featured in many of the important musical developments in the UK and beyond over the past 40 years".