Sir Andrew Davis

Andrew Davis – born February 2, 1944, in Ashridge, Hertfordshire, England - was an English conductor best known as the long-time chief conductor of several orchestras including the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. He was a Watford Grammar School boy who studied classics and played the organ at a local theatre before going on to study music at the Royal Academy. He later studied conducting under the mentorship of the renowned Italian conductor Franco Ferrara and was one of many famous conductors who learned their craft under the guidance of the Italian master. Andrew Davis took up his first significant post three years after graduating from Cambridge University in 1967 where he had been an organ scholar. He was engaged as an associate conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, a post he held for two years before becoming the musical director of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. In the late 1980s, he became the music director at Glyndebourne and then took up the role of chief conductor for the BBC Symphony Orchestra in 1989. He stood down from that position in 2000, shortly after receiving his knighthood, and held the title of conductor laureate there. Latterly, he lived in Chicago, Illinois and was the music director of the Lyric Opera of Chicago. Andrew Davis died from lukemia on April 20, 2024, at the age of 80. He left behind a recorded legacy that includes releases such as Elgar: Orchestral Works (1975), Elgar: Enigma Variations, Op. 36; Pomp and Circumstance Marches Nos. 1-5, Op. 39 (1982), Handel: Messiah (1987), The Baroque Album (1992), Holst: The Planets & Egdon Heath (1994), Nobel Prize Ceremony Music (1996), Vaughan Williams: The Symphonies (1997), and Stravinsky: Orchestral Works (2022).