Stanley ‘Spike’ Glasser was a South-African born, British composer and academic. He began learning the piano from infancy in Johannesburg, but didn’t start composing until his teens. In 1950, he came to the UK to study composition with Benjamin Frankel and Matyas Seiber. After obtaining a music degree from the University of Cambridge, Stanley returned to South Africa and lectured at Cape Town University for four years. His music was greatly influenced by ethnomusicological investigations into native African Music. Furthermore, he greatly valued teaching contemporary music, ethnomusicology and composition in modern university teaching and research. In 1963, Stanley was forced to flee South Africa due to his relationship with black jazz singer Maud Damons under the apartheid regime. Stanley is best known for his work at Goldsmiths University of London and is credited for forging the music department’s forward-thinking and progressive approach to teaching music. One of Goldsmiths’ music studios is named after him.