anyone know who caught the baton in your opinion?

Probably the Beatles...

Benjamin Britten....but then who after Britten??

After Britten. . . Arvo Part

If you mean the lineage of the British folk music collectors who then arranged their finds or gained inspiration from them you might have to include Percy Grainger on the list (even though he was born in Austrailia). If you mean the more general lineage of individualistic British composers, you should include William Walton, Michael Tippett, and probably someone really obvious who I can't think of. Among living composers, I would say that John Tavener would have to be included, even though he has now taken a decidedly non-English bent in his source material.

I would have to say Edgar Meyer, the double bassist composer. I feel he is at the forefront of incorporating traditional and comtempory music styles into the classical genre. He has fused the best elements of bluegrass in : short trip home, uncommon ritual, appalachia waltz, appalachian journey, perpetual motion releases as well as jazz through his collaboration with Bela Fleck and the Flecktones into the chamber halls via his work as a musician with the Lincoln center chamber society and his original composistions performed by musicians such as Hilary Hahn, Yo Yo Ma, and Joshua Bell ( Meyer and Bottesini concertos) . It is an exciting time for stateside chamber music lovers as a result of these exciting cultural cross-pollenisations through this wonderful composer/musicain. I would also nominate Tom Koopman of the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra for his arrangements of the Boccherini concertos.

Mdoughty,Thanks for your response and the other folks as well.I have to give Edgar Meyer another listen since it sounds like he's evolved since his earliest solo efforts.

Conductor Ben Zander's mentor starting in childhood was Benjamin Britten, however Zander has not done much in the composing department. Other than teaching, since Zander is doing a lot of conducting he literally caught the baton, Ha!