| Variations of Name | Alan Charles Maclaurin Mackerras |
| Biography | Sir Alan Charles Maclaurin Mackerras AC CH CBE was an Australian conductor. He was an authority on the operas of Janácek and Mozart, and the comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan. He was long associated with the English National Opera (and its predecessor) and Welsh National Opera and was the first Australian chief conductor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra.
Mackerras attended Sydney Grammar School and later St Aloysius College. At Sydney Grammar, he showed a precocious talent by composing operas and conducting student performances in his early teens, but his non-musical studies suffered. At all-male St Aloysius, he participated in the school's Gilbert and Sullivan productions, playing the roles of Kate in The Pirates of Penzance, Leila in Iolanthe and Ko-Ko in The Mikado. Unconvinced that music was a viable profession, his parents removed the young Mackerras from temptation by sending him to board at The King's School. The school's focus on sport and discipline led the young artist to run away several times, and he was eventually expelled. At age 16, Mackerras studied oboe, piano and composition at the NSW State Conservatorium of Music. He earned additional income from writing orchestral scores from recordings.
By 1941, while still at the conservatory, Mackerras began to get professional performing jobs in Sydney, partly because he was too young to join the military, while older musicians had been called up to go to the war.
His notable career highlights include:
1941-1942: played the oboe for J. C. Williamson Company during one of their Gilbert and Sullivan seasons
1948: rejoined Sadler's Wells as an assistant conductor and began his lifelong association with the Sadler's Wells Opera, conducting, among others, Janácek, Handel, Gluck, Bach, and Donizetti.
1954-1956: principal conductor of the BBC Concert Orchestra.
1973: conducted the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and Birgit Nilsson in the opening concert of the Concert Hall of the Sydney Opera House, in the presence of Queen Elizabeth II. In 1982, until 1985, he became the first Australian national appointed chief conductor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra.
1987-1992: directed the Welsh National Opera, where his Janácek productions won particular praise.
2004: became principal guest conductor of the Philharmonia Orchestra. He was also principal guest conductor of the Czech Philharmonic.
2008: announced as the new Honorary President of the Edinburgh International Festival Society. He was only the second person to hold this role, after Yehudi Menuhin. |