1926
1949
1950
1952
1953
1954
1955
1958
28 February
Stanley Glasser is born in Johannesburg, South Africa, the elder son of Assia (née Kagan) and Joe Glasser, first-generation Lithuanian Jews. Joe was an entrepreneur, running a successful clothing factory. Assia was a housewife and also worked for the Red Cross. Stanley began playing the piano at four or five years old, but always hated playing in public. He attended King Edward VII high school, Johannesburg, where he was in a band, the Victory Rhythm Boys, and acquired his nickname ‘Spike’ because, as a keen long-distance runner, he wore spiked running shoes. He began composing in his mid teens. As a young adult, he spent time among the Zulu in the Natal hills at the home of his family's servant, Shikelele.
Stanley graduates from the University of the Witwatersrand with a degree in Economics. He had been active in student social activities, had composed music for theatre productions and had become friends with the theatre director Leon Gluckman.
Determined to be a composer, Stanley spent time composing in Brittany and then arrives in the UK to study composition in London with Benjamin Frankel and, from 1952, with Mátyás Seiber.
Quickly attracting critical acclaim, an early orchestral work, Sinfonietta Concertante, is awarded a prestigious Royal Philharmonic Society Prize.
Stanley writes The Vision of Nongquise, a setting of verses by fellow exile and regular collaborator, South African poet Adolph Wood, vividly illustrating the true and tragic story of the Xhosa tribe.
Stanley spends time with Hugh Tracey (the first person to record and study the music of southern Africa) learning about southern African folk music.
Stanley writes The Vision of Nongquise, a setting of verses by fellow exile and regular collaborator, South African poet Adolph Wood, vividly illustrating the true and tragic story of the Xhosa tribe.
Someone suggests that Stanley should contact William Walton, who was impressed by Stanley's talent and wrote a reference which got him into Cambridge University as a mature student.
Stanley earns a first from King’s College, and is awarded the George Richards Prize.