Andrew Davis (conductor)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sir Andrew Frank Davis CBE (born February 2, 1944) is a British conductor (unrelated, incidentally, to fellow British conductor Sir Colin Davis).
Davis was born in Ashridge in Hertfordshire and studied at the Royal College of Music, King's College, Cambridge (where he was Organ Scholar) and later, with Franco Ferrara in Rome.
The first major post he held was as associate conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, a job he took in 1970. In 1975, he took the job of principal conductor with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. He stepped down in 1988, but has remained close to the orchestra as its Conductor Laureate.
In 1988, Davis became music director at Glyndebourne, where he met the American soprano Gianna Rolandi, whom he later married. Davis returned to the BBC in 1989 to become chief conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra, where he held the post until 2000.
Queen Elizabeth II created Davis a CBE in May 1992. In January 1999, she appointed him a Knight Bachelor in the New Year Honours List.
Davis became the music director and principal conductor of the Lyric Opera of Chicago in 2000. In 2005, he took on the post of Music Advisor to the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, for a designated three-year period. In September 2006, Davis announced that he would relinquish this position with Pittsburgh. (ref 1)
Davis has performed quite a wide range of repertoire, though his support of contemporary British music is of particular note. He is particularly associated with Michael Tippett, conducting the British premiere of his work The Mask of Time, and insisting on a production of Midsummer Marriage (performed in 2005) when he joined the Lyric Opera of Chicago. He has also made a critically acclaimed recording of Harrison Birtwistle's opera, The Mask of Orpheus.
[edit] References
| Preceded by Karel Ančerl |
Music Director, Toronto Symphony Orchestra 1975–1988 |
Succeeded by Gunther Herbig |
| Preceded by Bernard Haitink |
Music Director, Glyndebourne Opera Festival 1988–2000 |
Succeeded by Vladimir Jurowski |
| Preceded by John Pritchard |
Chief Conductor, BBC Symphony Orchestra 1989–2000 |
Succeeded by Leonard Slatkin |
| Preceded by Gennadi Rozhdestvensky |
Principal Conductor, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra 1995–1998 (with Paavo Järvi) |
Succeeded by Alan Gilbert |
| Preceded by Bruno Bartoletti |
Music Director, Lyric Opera of Chicago 2000– |
Succeeded by incumbent |
| Preceded by Mariss Jansons |
Artistic Advisor, Pittsburgh Symphony 2005– |
Succeeded by incumbent |
