A British-Irish composer, Elizabeth ‘Betty’ Maconchy studied at the Royal College of Music with Ralph Vaughan Williams, and moved away from English pastoralism towards central European modernism as captured in the works of Bartók and Janáček, completing her studies in Prague.
She was in great demand as a composer after the Second World War, and was made President of the Society for the Promotion of New Music, befriending other composers Elisabeth Lutyens, Grace Williams, and Ina Boyle. Her daughter Nicola LeFanu also became a composer.
A fuller biography can be found here: https://oxfordsong.org/composer/elizabeth-maconchy
Watch Dr Natasha Loges (Royal College of Music discusses her life and works:
Proud Thames (a Coronation Overture)
The Listening Project Blog 