Philip Sainton

Philip Prosper Sainton (10 November 1891 – 2 September 1967) was a British–French composer, conductor, and violist.

He was born in Arques-la-Bataille, in Seine-Maritime, France, grandson to violinist Prosper Sainton and contralto Charlotte Helen Sainton-Dolby. He started his music studies learning the violin. At some point he entered the Royal Academy of Music in London, where he studied composition under Frederick Corder and viola under Lionel Tertis. Shortly after World War I, he joined the Queen's Hall orchestra, which he relinquished in 1929 to replace H. Waldo Warner in the London Quartet. In 1925 he was also appointed principal viola of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. In 1930, after the London Quartet's tour of the United States, he joined the BBC Symphony Orchestra. His composition activities had begun early. Already by 1923 he had conducted his first orchestral work, Sea Pictures, at Queen's Hall promenade concerts. In 1935, Sir Henry Wood conducted the premiere of his Serenade Fantastique with Bernard Shore playing the viola. He was professor at the Guildhall School of Music.