Zdeněk Mácal

Zdeněk Mácal (IPA2|ma:tsal) (b. January 8, 1936) is a Czech conductor.

Biography

Mácal was born in Brno, Czechoslovakia (today's Czech Republic) where he began violin lessons with his father at the age of four. He later attended the Brno Conservatory and the Janáček Academy of Music, where he graduated in 1960 with top honors. He became principal conductor of the Prague Symphony Orchestra and conducted both symphonic concerts and operas. He won the 1965 International Conducting Competition in Besancon, France, and the 1966 Dmitri Mitropoulos Competition in New York, under the direction of Leonard Bernstein. Leaving behind a promising career in Czechoslovakia, he left the country after the Soviet-led invasion of 1968 crushed the Prague Spring, finding work first at the WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne, followed by the Radio Orchestra of Hanover.

Career

Later, Mácal made his American debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 1972. He served as Artistic Advisor of the San Antonio Symphony and principal conductor of Chicago's Grant Park Summer Festival.

In 1977, he made his own orchestral arrangement of Modest Mussorgsky's piano suite "Pictures at an Exhibition".

Mácal became music director of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra in 1986. He took that orchestra on a critically-acclaimed East Coast tour in 1989, which included performances at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. and Carnegie Hall in New York. He made a very popular recording of "Má Vlast" by Bedřich Smetana for Telarc Records in Uihlein Hall in Milwaukee on November 10-11, 1991. During his tenure in Milwaukee, the orchestra's concerts were broadcast on more than 300 radio stations. [Telarc Records liner notes]

Mácal conducted the Sydney Symphony during the 1986-1987 season, leaving after some labor problems.

Mácal left Milwaukee to become Music Director of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra in September 1993. Delos International recorded Antonín Dvořák's "Stabat Mater" in the fall of 1994. An October 23, 1995, recording session in the State Theatre in New Brunswick, New Jersey was devoted to Dolby Surround recordings of the "Symphony No. 2 in C minor" and the suite from the ballet "The Red Poppy" by Reinhold Moritzovich Glière. [Delos liner notes]

In 2003, Mácal was appointed chief conductor of the Czech Philharmonic. His current contract with the orchestra is through 2008. In September 2007, Mácal announced his sudden resignation from this position, although he is scheduled to fulfill his remaining conducting engagements with the Czech Philharmonic, without administrative responsibilities. [cite news | url=http://www.playbillarts.com/news/article/7047.html | title=Angry Over Bad Review, Conductor Zdenek Mácal Abruptly Quits Czech Philharmonic | publisher="Playbill Arts" | author=Matthew Westphal | date=11 September 2007 | accessdate=2007-09-13]

He has conducted more than 150 orchestras throughout the world.

Mácal has also performed and recorded works with the Philharmonia in London, including Richard Danielpour's "Celestial Night".

In 2006 Mácal made a brief appearance in the Japanese drama series Nodame Cantabile, based on the manga by Tomoko Ninomiya, during scenes shot in Prague. He played the main character's childhood mentor, conductor Sebastiano Vieira, a role he recently returned to for the two special episodes filmed in 2007 and broadcast on 4th and 5th January 2008.

References

External links

*allmusic|41:37977