William Baines

Biography

William Baines was a Yorkshire composer and pianist born at Horbury in the West Riding. He came from a musical background: his father was an organist and played piano at the local cinema. After piano lessons with William Jowett of Leeds and basic composition studies at the Yorkshire Training College of Music, Baines also began work in the cinema. Ill health was to dog him for most of his life and after a few months of military service he returned to York as a recitalist and cinema pianist. He was to spend the rest of his short life composing and playing and exploring his beloved Yorkshire. He died in York in 1922.

Biography text from Last.fm, available under CC BY-SA.