George Percy Grainger was born on July 8, 1882 at Brighton, Victoria. He gave his first concert tour what the age of twelve. Soon after completing the tour, Grainger studied in Germany to further his training as a pianist as well as in composition. A move to London from 1901-1914gave him a chance to hone his musical skills and the pieces Colonial Song and Mock Morris were published at this time. 
 
 

Close friends with Edvard Grieg, Grainger was encouraged by the Norwegian composer to delve more closely into English foldkmusic. Grainger collected songs from various folk-singers and created many famous arrangements from these initial phonograph recordings. 
 
 

Although he always classed himself as Australian, Grainger moved to the United States in 1914 and became a US citizen. His life in the US was filled with concert tours (including ones to Australia where he founded the Grainger Museum in 1930) and lecture circuits. He continued his work with multicultural music and Medieval European songs and published man arrangements of these. As the creator of the "Free Music machine" in association with Burnett Cross, Grainger worked on a means for producing music not limited by time or pitch intervals (literally music free from confinements). 
 
 

Grainger died on February 20th, 1961 but he left a legacy of over 1200 pieces and arrangements which continue to be the staple of concert repertoire everywhere.