Leo Quayle

Last updated

Leo Quayle (11 December 1918 - 19 May 2005) was a South African conductor described as the "South African maestro of music theatre." [1]

Contents

Early life

Quayle was born in Pretoria where he trained with his father, Leo Quayle snr., and Isadore Epstein. [2] He conducted an orchestra for the first time at the age of fourteen, and conducted the Pretoria Juvenile Orchestra in 1934. [1] He won the University of South Africa Scholarship for Piano in 1936. He took up this scholarship at the Royal College of Music in 1937, and returned after the end of the Second World War. [3] He studied under Constant Lambert at the Royal College of Music where he won the Stier Prize for conducting in 1939, and the Hopkinson Gold Medal in 1946. He spent the Second World War in South Africa as an organiser/director of the Union Defence Force Entertainment Unit. [4]

Career

During the 1940s and 1950s he was firstly the assistant and later the principal conductor at the Sadler's Wells Opera Company in London as well as one of the first music directors for the Welsh National Opera. He directed television operas, conducted ballet and film music at Denham Film Studios, and conducted various British orchestras including the London Symphony, Bournemouth Symphony and Hallé Orchestras. He was also a part-time professor at the Royal College of Music. He spent 1953 as the Chorus Master at Glyndebourne. [3] He returned to South Africa to teach music at the Conservatorium of Music at the University of Stellenbosch, and was appointed professor of music at the University of the Orange Free State in 1958. [2] Seen as "largely responsible for putting Bloemfontein on the musical map," he established both an orchestra and a string quartet in the city. [1] In 1961 he was made an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Music, while in 1964 he became the director of Music and Opera for PACT in Johannesburg. He founded the PACT Orchestra in 1965 which accompanies PACT's Opera and PACT Ballet. He composed the music for the ballet La Fenêtre which was choreographed by Audrey King and performed by PACT Ballet in 1966. [2] In 1973 he was awarded the Nederburg Prize for Opera. [5] He was involved in conceptualising and planning the State Theatre in Pretoria which opened in 1981. [1] He retired from PACT in 1983, after which he spent two years at Calgary Opera and a season with the Bochumer Symphoniker. [3]

Personal life

Quayle met his Durban-born wife Joan in the Entertainment Unit during the Second World War. Joan, a singer under the name Joan Ayling, died in Durban in 1993. They had two sons: Bruce Anthony and Leo. [6] He died of pneumonia in Durban on 19 May 2005. [7]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Mackerras</span> Australian conductor

Sir Alan Charles MacLaurin Mackerras was an Australian conductor. He was an authority on the operas of Janáček and Mozart, and the comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan. He was long associated with the English National Opera and Welsh National Opera and was the first Australian chief conductor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. He also specialized in Czech music as a whole, producing many recordings for the Czech label Supraphon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Bonynge</span> Australian conductor and pianist

Richard Alan Bonynge is an Australian conductor and pianist. He is the widower of Australian dramatic coloratura soprano Dame Joan Sutherland. Bonynge conducted virtually all of Sutherland's operatic performances from 1962 until her retirement in 1990.

Patrick Flynn was a composer and conductor who was active in the United States, United Kingdom, New Zealand and Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Boris Brott</span> Canadian conductor and motivational speaker (1944–2022)

Boris Brott, was a Canadian conductor and motivational speaker. He was one of the most internationally recognized Canadian conductors, having conducted on stages around the world, including Carnegie Hall, La Scala,and Covent Garden. He was known for his innovative methods of introducing classical music to new audiences. Over his career, he commissioned, performed, and recorded a wide variety of Canadian works for orchestra.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anthony Inglis (conductor)</span> British conductor (born 1952)

Anthony Inglis is a British conductor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bramwell Tovey</span> British conductor and composer (1953–2022)

Bramwell Tovey was a British conductor and composer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Antonio Pappano</span> English-Italian conductor and pianist

Sir Antonio Pappano is an English-Italian conductor and pianist. He is currently music director of the Royal Opera House and of the Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia. He is scheduled to become chief conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra in 2024.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eugene Aynsley Goossens</span> English conductor and composer

Sir Eugene Aynsley Goossens was an English conductor and composer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Simone Young</span> Australian conductor

Simone Margaret Young AM is an Australian conductor. She is currently chief conductor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edward Downes</span> British conductor

Sir Edward Thomas ("Ted") Downes, CBE was an English conductor, specialising in opera.

Akira Endo was a Japanese-American conductor and music educator. Maestro Endo held conducting posts with the American Ballet Theatre, Westside Orchestra, Long Beach Symphony Orchestra, Louisville Orchestra, Austin Symphony Orchestra, San Antonio Symphony Orchestra, Houston Symphony, Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre.

Odysseas Dimitriadis was a Georgian of Greek descent and Soviet classical music conductor. During his 70-year career, Odysseas had conducted a number of the world's leading orchestras, as well as being a main conductor of Georgia, USSR state orchestra and the Bolshoy Theatre orchestra. In 1980 he conducted during the opening and closing ceremony of the 1980 Summer Olympics, held in Moscow. He has received a number of awards and titles, including Ambassador of Hellenism, National Artist of the Soviet Union and Golden Medal of Athens.

George Daugherty is an American conductor, director, producer, and writer.

Gavin Sutherland is a conductor, composer/arranger, pianist and musicologist. He is currently Music Director for English National Ballet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alexander Shelley</span> British conductor (born 1979)

Alexander Gordon Shelley is an Echo Music Prize-winning English conductor. He is currently music director of the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa, as well as principal associate conductor of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Artistic and Music Director Designate of Artis—Naples and the Naples Philharmonic. Shelley was the unanimous winner of the 2005 Leeds Conductors Competition. From 2009 to 2017 he was chief conductor of the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra. He was also artistic director of the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen's Echo and Deutscher Gründerpreis winning "Zukunftslabor". He is recipient of the Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">South African National Youth Orchestra Foundation</span>

The South African National Youth Orchestra Foundation is a non-profit organisation in the music education and development sector. The Foundation supports the training and development of South Africa's young musicians through national courses, national and international tours and workshops, and networks nationally and internationally. It also assists regional youth orchestra and music education programmes countrywide. It organises youth orchestra courses, where the South African National Youth Orchestras are formed. This has included the South African National Youth Orchestra, South African National Concert Orchestra, the South African National Wind Orchestra, the South African National Youth Baroque Orchestra, South African National Youth Brass and the South African National Youth String Orchestra. Members of these orchestras are under the age of 25.

Martin Yates is a British conductor. After attending Kimbolton School, he studied at the Royal College of Music and Trinity College of Music, London, where his teachers included Bernard Keeffe (conducting), Richard Arnell (composition), Ian Lake, Jakob Kaletsky and Alan Rowlands (piano), and Douglas Moore and John Burden.

John Hollingsworth was a British orchestral conductor prominent in the concert hall, the ballet and opera theatre, and the film studio. He was Sir Malcolm Sargent's assistant conductor at The Proms, where he conducted over 60 times including some world and British premieres. He also conducted at the Royal Opera and Sadlers Wells, and became associated with music for British horror films of the 1950s and early 1960s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Black conductors</span>

Black conductors are musicians of African, Caribbean, African-American ancestry and other members of the African diaspora who are musical ensemble leaders who direct classical music performances, such as an orchestral or choral concerts, or jazz ensemble big band concerts by way of visible gestures with the hands, arms, face and head. Conductors of African descent are rare, as the vast majority are male and Caucasian.

Leo Hussain is a British conductor, who has mainly concentrated on opera. After tenures as music director of the Rouen Philharmonic Orchestra and the Salzburger Landestheater, he has worked freelance directing operas at major houses in Europe, such as Bizet's Carmen at the Royal Danish Theatre, Korngold's Die tote Stadt at the Théâtre du Capitole, and Weinberg's Die Passagierin at the Oper Frankfurt. He has also conducted outside Europe, for example Capriccio by Richard Strauss at the Santa Fe Opera, as well as concerts in Japan, Australia and New Zealand.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Hinch, John deCourteille (1 Nov 2004). "Leo Quayle (1918 - ) - South African maestro of music theatre". South African Journal of Cultural History. 18 (2). Retrieved 12 January 2023.
  2. 1 2 3 Grut, Marina (1981). The History of Ballet in South Africa. Human & Rosseau. p. 403. ISBN   0798110899.
  3. 1 2 3 "Leo Quayle". Opera Scotland. Retrieved 19 December 2022.
  4. ↑ "Union Defence Force Entertainment Unit". Encyclopaedia of South African Theatre, Film, Media and Performance. Retrieved 12 January 2023.
  5. ↑ Alkema, Sjoerd. "Conductors of the Cape Town Municipal Orchestra, 1914-1965: a historical perspective" (PDF). University of Cape Town. Retrieved 10 January 2023.
  6. ↑ Smart, Caroline (9 June 2005). "Tribute to Leo Quayle". artSMart. Retrieved 12 January 2023.
  7. ↑ "Leo Quayle". Encyclopaedia of South African Theatre, Film, Media and Performance. Retrieved 12 January 2023.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.