Conductor Andrew Davis, who headed Lyric Opera of Chicago and orchestras on three continents, dies

Andrew Davis, an acclaimed British conductor who was music director of the Chicago Lyric Opera and orchestras on three continents, has died. He was 80 years previous.

Davis died Saturday on the Rusk Institute in Chicago from leukemia, his supervisor, Jonathan Brill of Opus three Artists, mentioned Sunday.

Davis had been managing the illness for a yr and a half to 2 years, but it surely flared up shortly after his 80th 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.”

“An achieved musician, extremely versatile and in addition an exceptional colleague,” soprano Renée Fleming mentioned in an e-mail to The Related Press. “It takes a particular sort of mastery to be an amazing conductor, the ability to play almost 100 musicians (each, deep down, a diva or divo) dangle in your slightest gesture. That's why it's notable that even with that power, Andrew's essential high quality was his innate happiness. He was gifted with an infectious pleasure that in some way manifested itself in each measure of music he made.”

As his 80th birthday approached, Davis felt invigorated by the problem of molding an orchestra, particularly younger musicians.

“Taking all that vitality, that enthusiasm and that keenness, and galvanizing it into a complete, completely unified conception and never only a conception, however… what's the phrase? — realization,” he mentioned throughout an interview with the AP final July after rehearsing with the USA Nationwide Youth Orchestra in workshops after which at Carnegie Corridor in New York. “I berate them greater than I’d, however I hope at all times with a sparkle in my eyes.”

Davis was music director of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra from 1975 to 1988 and of Britain's Glyndebourne Competition from 1988 to 2000; chief conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra from 1989 to 2000 and of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra from 2013 to 2019; then musical director of the Lyric Opera from 2000 to 2021.

Davis made his Lyric Opera debut in 1987 and performed round 700 performances of 62 operas by 22 composers.

“He was a real creative companion to me and a shining gentle to many people,” Lyric Opera CEO Anthony Freud mentioned in an announcement. “We’ll miss his unbelievable artistry, his extraordinary knowledge, his irrepressible humor, his boundless enthusiasm for all times, and his devotion to the humanities and humanities.”

Davis performed a dozen Final Evening of the Proms concert events, an annual celebration of Nice Britain at London's Royal Albert Corridor. He twice gave the customary speech to the tune of the Main Normal's music from Gilbert and Sullivan's “The Pirates of Penzance.”

Born in Ashridge, Hertfordshire, England, Andrew Frank Davis performed the organ for his parish choir and joined the Watford Grammar Faculty for Boys choir. He studied piano on the Royal Academy of Music in London, turned an organ scholar at King's School, Cambridge, and performed piano, harpsichord and organ on the Academy of St. Martin within the Fields from 1966 to 1970.

He made his conducting debut with the BBC Symphony in 1970, turned assistant conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and the Philharmonic Orchestra after which, in 1971, made his North American debut with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.

“One of many biggest conductors of his technology,” mentioned Carnegie Corridor government and creative director Clive Gillinson. “I labored with him repeatedly on the London Symphony Orchestra, and the musicians and I have been at all times completely dedicated to his magnificent musicianship.”

Davis made his opera conducting debut in Strauss's “Capriccio” at Glyndebourne in 1973 and the next yr met his future spouse, the soprano Gianna Rolandi, when she sang Zerbinetta in performances of Strauss's “Ariadne auf Naxos” that he performed. In New York. York Metropolitan Opera. They 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 at New School, Oxford,” he instructed NPR, “however then a few weeks later I took the organ scholarship checks at King's School, Cambridge, which to my shock I received, so That was The Finish of the 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 companies shall be personal.