In resisting the present tendency among conductors to leave a post at the first attractive opportunity, Simon Denis Rattle (born 1955) transformed England's City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra from second-rate to world-class status. His imaginative programming and brilliant performances made him, his orchestra, and the city of Birmingham the toast of the musical world.

Simon Rattle was born in Liverpool on January 19, 1955. Family members provided his earliest musical influences. His father, the managing director of an import-export company, played the piano, as did his mother. His sister, elder by nine years, taught him to read scores and introduced him through recordings to much music that would remain important in his musical life. But the music of both father and sister was not that which would normally serve in grooming the leader of a world-class orchestra; not the standard symphonic works from Haydn through Brahms. Instead, Gershwin or jazz on...