Vilém Tauský

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Vilém Tauský CBE (July 20, 1910 - March 16, 2004) was a Czech conductor and composer. He was born in Přerov, Moravia.

He studied with Leoš Janáček and, at the age of 19, conducted Giacomo Puccini's Turandot in Brno. The rise of the Nazis forced him to move to France and then to the United Kingdom, where he was in the Czechoslovak Army.

On 26 December 1953 Tauský became possibly the only conductor to conduct two operas on the same day, with a performance of Engelbert Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel in the afternoon at Sadler's Wells and Giuseppe Verdi's Il Trovatore at Covent Garden in the evening.

He was conductor of the BBC Concert Orchestra from 1956 to 1967. He regularly appeared with this orchestra on the BBC Light Programme's long-running weekly show Friday Night is Music Night. Between 1966 and 1992 he was the director of opera and head of the conducting course at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama

In 1979, he published a volume of his memoirs under the title Vilem Tausky Tells his Story (ISBN 0852494785). In 1981 he was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE).