Andrew Davis (conductor)

Sir Andrew Frank Davis CBE (2 February 1944 – 20 April 2024) was an English conductor. He was the long-time chief conductor of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. He was music director at the Glyndebourne Festival from 1988 to 2000, and especially known for conducting the traditional Last Night of The Proms, including Last Night speeches. He was music director and principal conductor of the Lyric Opera of Chicago from 2000 to the 2020/21 season.

Music critic Alan Blyth described Davis as "a conductor whose technical skill was enhanced by an inborn enthusiasm for and dedication to the task in hand that he was able to transfer to the forces before him."

Andrew Frank Davis was born on 2 February 1944, in Ashridge, Hertfordshire, England. His parents were Robert J. Davis and his wife Florence Joyce (née Badminton). Davis grew up in Chesham, Buckinghamshire, and in Watford. He had piano lessons from age five and attended Watford Boys' Grammar School, where he studied Classics in his sixth form years. His adolescent musical work included playing the organ at the Palace Theatre, Watford.

Davis studied at the Royal College of Music and King's College, Cambridge, where he was an organ scholar, graduating in 1967. He later studied conducting in Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Rome, with Franco Ferrara.

Davis was a keyboardist (piano, harpsichord and organ) for the Academy of St Martin in the Fields from 1966 to 1970. He then made his debut with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and became associate conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. In September 1974 he conducted the London Schools Symphony Orchestra at the Royal Festival Hall, London.^{[citation needed]}

From 1975 Davis was music director of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra (TSO). During his tenure the new Roy Thomson Hall was opened in 1982. He took the orchestra on tours of Asia, Europe and North America; in 1978 they toured China, in the UK they played in Edinburgh and at the Proms, in Canada they toured far north including Inuvik, North West Territories, and in the US they frequently performed at Carnegie Hall. He conducted the orchestra in 33 recordings; three of them received Juno Awards and two a Grammy nomination. He supported young talent, collaborating with the Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra and supporting the founding of the Toronto Children's Chorus, performing in TSO concerts. He also played keyboard instruments and sometimes entertained as "master of ceremonies" in costume.

Davis held the post until 1988, and then took the title of Conductor Laureate with the TSO. He returned every year to conduct the orchestra, altogether 50 years from his debut in 1974. He conducted around 1000 concerts, at halls also including Massey Hall and Ontario Place. In 2018 a street near his home was named Sir Andrew Davis Lane. In April 2022, he was one of former TSO music directors including Gustavo Gimeno meeting to celebrate the orchestra's 100th season, Maestros' Homecoming.

In 1988, Davis became music director at the Glyndebourne Festival, where he had first conducted Capriccio by Richard Strauss in 1973. In 1989, he married his third wife, the American soprano Gianna Rolandi (1952–2021), whom he had met while conducting at the Metropolitan Opera in 1984. He conducted operas there such as Janácek's The Makropulos Case, Rossini's Le comte Ory and Alban Berg's Lulu. Davis concluded his Glyndebourne tenure in 2000. In 1989, Sir John Drummond appointed Davis as chief conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra (BBC SO). During his BBC SO tenure, Davis restored the tradition established by Malcolm Sargent of the chief conductor of the BBC SO conducting the Last Night of The Proms. He was noted for his humorous Last Night speeches, including giving two speeches to the Major-General's patter song from The Pirates of Penzance, in 1998 and in 2000, but he also more seriously addressed the deaths of Diana, Princess of Wales, Mother Teresa, and Sir Georg Solti in his 1997 Last Night speech. Davis stepped down as chief conductor of BBC SO in 2000 and from then held the title of Conductor Laureate of the orchestra. In 1998 he conducted at the Proms Elgar's Third Symphony that Anthony Payne had derived from the composer's sketches.