FAREWELL TO…
Libor Pešek Born 1933 Conductor Pešek was principal conductor of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra for ten years, from 1987-97, before becoming its conductor laureate. At the time of his death he was also principal guest conductor of the Prague Symphony Orchestra.
Born in Prague, he studied conducting, piano, cello and trombone at the city’s Academy of Performing Arts, and counted among his teachers the conductors Václav Smetáček and Karel Ančerl.
In addition to his role in Liverpool, he served as chief conductor of the Slovak Philharmonic from 1981-82 and conductor-in-residence of the Czech Philharmonic from 1982-90. He also held the post of chief conductor at the Czech National Symphony Orchestra from 2007-19.
During a 70-year career in which he toured Europe, America and Asia, he championed the music of his homeland and particularly the works of less familiar composers such as Josef Suk and Vítězslav Novák. Pešek was awarded an honorary knighthood in 1996. Geoff Nuttall Born 1965 Violinist First violinist and founding member of the St Lawrence String Quartet, Geoff Nuttall was an inspirational and much-respected presence in the field of chamber music. He and his St Lawrence colleagues served as graduate ensemble-in-residence at the Juilliard School, Yale University, the Hartt School of Music and on the faculty at Stanford University, where the quartet has been ensemble-in-residence since 1999.
From 2009 until his death, he was the director of chamber music at the Spoleto Festival USA in Charleston, South Carolina, bringing together some of chamber music’s most beloved performers to celebrate the art form with spontaneous collaborations. He delighted audiences with his engaging, warm and insightful introductions.
Over the course of the St Lawrence Quartet’s 33-year career, he performed internationally on five continents, collaborated with composers such as John Adams and Osvaldo Golijov and recorded Grammy-nominated and Juno Award-winning albums.
Also remembered…
The American mezzo-soprano Joanna Simon (born 1936) originated the role of Pantasilea in Ginastera’s 1967 opera Bomarzo and went on to become an Emmy-winning arts journalist in the 1980s.
Michael Ponti (born 1937), a much-loved German pianist, left a vast recorded legacy and was the first to record the complete piano works of Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov and Scriabin.