COATES, ALBERT (1882– ), English conductor and composer, was born at St. Petersburg (Leningrad), April 23, 1882, and was sent home to England to be educated at Buckhurst Hill school, Essex, and then at Liverpool university. Later he studied at Leipzig Conservatoire and had his first experience of conduct ing as repetiteur at the opera there under Nikisch. He was then conductor at Elberfeld (1906), and joint conductor with Schuch at Dresden. From Germany he went to Russia as conductor of the Imperial Opera at St. Petersburg, a post which he held for five years. He appeared in England from time to time, but it was not until 1919 that he made London his permanent head quarters and established himself in the favour of the British pub lic as one of the leading English conductors. He has also con ducted in Paris, in New York and in other American cities, and for two years (1923-25) was director of the Philharmonic orchestra at Rochester, U.S.A.