Harty, (Herbert) Hamilton (1879–1941)

Irish conductor and composer. After much conducting experience in London he was appointed conductor to the Hallé Orchestra, Manchester, in 1920. He gave the first British performance of Mahler's ninth symphony in 1930.

He studied piano, viola, and composition under his father and became an organist at the age of 12. He later became organist in Belfast and Dublin, where he studied further under Michele Esposito. In 1900 he settled in London as an accompanist and composer and married the soprano Agnes Nicholls. He retired from the Hallé in 1933.

Works Orchestral arrangement of Handel's Water Music and Fireworks Music, Irish Symphony (1924), Comedy Overture (1907), symphonic poem With the Wild Geese for orchestra (1910); violin concerto.

Vocal Ode to a Nightingale (Keats) for soprano and orchestra (1907); cantata The Mystic Trumpeter (Whitman; 1913); many songs.