Conductor Andrew Davis, proper, raises his arms as he takes a bow, accompanied by Renee Fleming, and Peter Rose, heart, in the course of the last gown rehearsal of Richard Strauss’s Capriccio within the Metropolitan Opera at New York’s Lincoln Heart, March 25, 2011. Richard Drew/AP disguise caption
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Richard Drew/AP
Conductor Andrew Davis, proper, raises his arms as he takes a bow, accompanied by Renee Fleming, and Peter Rose, heart, in the course of the last gown rehearsal of Richard Strauss’s Capriccio within the Metropolitan Opera at New York’s Lincoln Heart, March 25, 2011.
Richard Drew/AP
Andrew Davis, an acclaimed British conductor who was music director of the Lyric Opera of Chicago and orchestras on three continents, has died. He was 80.
Davis died Saturday at Rusk Institute in Chicago from leukemia, his supervisor, Jonathan Brill of Opus 3 Artists, stated Sunday.
Davis had been managing the illness for between 1 1/2 and a couple of years, but it surely turned acute shortly after his eightieth birthday on Feb. 2. He had performed the Chicago Symphony Orchestra final December within the U.S. premiere of his personal orchestration of Handel’s “Messiah.”
“A consummate musician, extremely versatile and an exceptional colleague, as nicely,” soprano Renée Fleming stated in an electronic mail to The Related Press. “It takes a particular sort of command to be a fantastic conductor, the ability to make near 100 musicians (each, at coronary heart, a diva or divo) cling in your tiniest gesture. So it’s exceptional that even with that energy, Andrew’s main high quality was his innate happiness. He was gifted with an infectious pleasure that by some means got here by means of in each bar of music he made.”
As his eightieth birthday approached, Davis was invigorated by the problem of molding an orchestra, particularly younger gamers.
“Harnessing all that vitality and that enthusiasm and that zeal, and galvanizing it into a very, completely unified conception and never simply conception however — what is the phrase? — realization,” he stated throughout an interview with the AP final July after rehearsing the Nationwide Youth Orchestra of america of America in workshops after which at New York’s Carnegie Corridor. “I berate them greater than I’d, however I hope at all times with a twinkle in my eye.”
Davis was music director of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra from 1975-88 and Britain’s Glyndebourne Pageant from 1988-2000; chief conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra from 1989-2000 and the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra from 2013-19; then music director of the Lyric Opera from 2000-21.
Davis made his Lyric Opera debut in 1987 and led about 700 performances of 62 operas by 22 composers.
“He was a real inventive companion to me and a shining gentle for thus many people,” Lyric Opera normal director Anthony Freud stated in a press release. “We’ll miss his unimaginable artistry, his extraordinary knowledge, his irrepressible humor, his unfettered zest for all times and his devotion to the humanities and the humanities.”
Davis performed a dozen Final Evening of the Proms concert events, an annual celebration of Britain at London’s Royal Albert Corridor. He twice gave the customary speech within the patter of the Main Normal’s tune from Gilbert and Sullivan’s “The Pirates of Penzance.”
Born in Ashridge, within the Hertfordshire county of England, Andrew Frank Davis performed organ for his parish choir and joined the choir on the Watford Grammar Faculty for Boys. He studied piano at London’s Royal Academy of Music in London, turned an organ pupil at King’s Faculty Cambridge, and performed piano, harpsichord and organ with the Academy of St. Martin within the Fields from 1966-70.
He made his conducting debut with the BBC Symphony in 1970, turned an assistant conductor with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and Philharmonia Orchestra, then in 1971 made his North American debut with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.
“One of many best conductors of his era,” Carnegie Corridor govt and inventive director Clive Gillinson stated. “I labored with him on an ongoing foundation on the London Symphony Orchestra, and the gamers and I have been at all times completely engaged by his very good musicianship.”
Davis made his opera-conducting debut in Strauss’ “Capriccio” on the Glyndebourne in 1973 and the next 12 months met his future spouse, soprano Gianna Rolandi, when she sang Zerbinetta in performances of Strauss’ “Ariadne auf Naxos” that he led at New York’s Metropolitan Opera. They acquired married in 1989 and had a son, composer Edward Frazier Davis.
Davis turned a Commander of the British Empire in 1992 and a Knight Bachelor in 1999. The household moved to Chicago when he was employed by the Lyric Opera.
In the course of the pandemic, Davis translated Virgil’s “Aeneid” from Latin into English verse.
“I took an entrance examination in classics in New Faculty, Oxford,” he informed NPR, “however then a few weeks later I took the organ scholarship trials at King’s Faculty, Cambridge, which a lot to my shock I received, in order that was the top of classics for me.”
His spouse died in 2021. Along with his son, he’s survived by a sister, Jill Atkins, and brothers Martin Davis and Tim Davis. Funeral providers will probably be personal.
