Martin Turnovský

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Martin Turnovský (born Prague, 29 September 1928) is a Czech conductor.

Turnovský studied conducting at the Prague Academy of Music, as a pupil of Karel Ancerl and George Szell. He won first prize at the International Conductors Competition of 1958 in Besancon, France.

During the 1960s, he was appointed chief conductor of the Radio Symphony Orchestra Plzen 1963-66, the Saxonian Staatskapelle and State Opera, Semperoper 1966-68], the Norwegian State Opera 1975-80, the Opera in Bonn 1979-83 and of the Prague Symphony Orchestra 1992-96.

Also, between 1960 and 1968, he was permanent guest conductor of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra.

After the entry of the Warsaw pact nations into Czechoslovakia he emigrated to Austria and was granted Austrian citizenship. However, following the revolutions of 1989 he returned to central and Eastern European countries.

Since he gained Austrian citizenship, he conducted many more symphony orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, L'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, the Tokyo Metropolitan Orchestra, and other orchestras.