Elizabeth Poston

Composer Elizabeth Poston was popular as a composer of hymns, carols, and scores for films and radio programs. She also composed songs and chamber music and was widely recognized as a radio broadcaster and as the editor of several music anthologies issued by Penguin Books. Poston graduated in 1925, and three years later, her Violin Sonata was broadcast on BBC radio. She remained active as a keyboardist, giving the premiere of Walter Leigh's Concertino for harpsichord and strings in 1934. Poston wrote several Christmas carols that are still widely performed, including The Boar's Head Carol (1960) and Jesus Christ the Apple Tree (1967). Poston died at Rooks Nest House on March 18, 1987. Many of her some 300 compositions await rediscover, but the St. Albans Cathedral Girls Choir issued an album of her Carols and Anthems in 2023.