Around the Music Festival

British conductor Andrew Davis died April 20 in Chicago at the age of 80. Davis was diagnosed with leukemia last year, and his health had been deteriorating for two months.

He was born in Hertfordshire and studied at King’s College, Cambridge, where he was an organ scholar. He then began his conducting career, becoming Music Director of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra in 1975 (-1988). He then became Music Director of the Glyndebourne Festival Opera in 1988 (-2000).

He also became the principal conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra in 1989, and until his retirement in 2000, he always appeared in the “Last Night” of the BBC Proms, a summer music festival in London, and became a national favorite.

He later served as principal conductor of the Lyric Opera of Chicago (2000-2021) and the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (2013-2019), and made his Bayreuth Festival debut in 2002 conducting “Lohengrin”.

Since then, he has made numerous guest appearances with internationally renowned orchestras. He has many performances scheduled in the future, including a guest appearance with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

His repertoire ranges from Baroque music to 20th century works by Janacek, Messiaen, Boulez, Elgar, Tippett, Britten, and many others, and he has many surviving recordings. It was recently released by Warner Classics as a 16-CD retrospective collection.

He was awarded the Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1992 and was knighted as a “Knight Bachelor” in 1999. In 2002, he conducted the “Prom at the Palace” concert held in the gardens of Buckingham Palace as part of the 50th anniversary celebrations of Queen Elizabeth II’s reign.

PHOTO：Dario Acosta