Zdeněk Mácal

Zdeněk Mácal (born January 8, 1936 in Brno ) is a Czech conductor .

biography

Viennese flute clock 1971, Pavel Štěpán , Zdeněk Mácal, Czech Philharmonic

Zdeněk Mácal studied conducting at the Conservatory and then at the Janáček Music Academy in Brno. He gained international attention when he won the Besançon Conducting Competition in 1965 and a year later received 3rd prize at the Dimitri Mitropoulos International Music Competition in New York.

Mácal left Czechoslovakia in 1968 after the invasion of the Warsaw Pact troops and found his first job as chief conductor of the WDR Cologne Symphony Orchestra (1970–1974). Later he was also chief conductor and music director of the NDR Radiophilharmonie Hannover , the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra (1986–1995) and the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra (1993–2002). He was also the director of the Chicago Grant Park Summer Festival. In 1986 he was appointed chief conductor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra , but this contract was terminated in 1987 after conflicts with musicians and management.

From 2003 to September 2007, Zdeněk Mácal was chief conductor of the renowned Czech Philharmonic , but officially resigned from this post due to bad reviews in the feature pages because of the conservative choice of programs. In the years before that, his career was mainly concentrated in the USA, where he was at the podium in all major orchestras. In total, Zdeněk Mácal conducted more than 160 orchestras on four continents, including the Berlin Philharmonic , the Orchester de Paris , all the major London orchestras, the Vienna Symphony and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra .

In 2006, Mácal had a guest appearance in the Japanese drama series Nodame Cantabile , where he played the main character's childhood mentor, the conductor Sebastiano Vieira .

Web links

• Literature by and about Zdeněk Mácal in the catalog of the German National Library
• Literature and other media by and about Zdeněk Mácal in the catalog of the National Library of the Czech Republic
• Zdeněk Mácal at Allmusic (English)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Winner of the Concours international de jeunes chefs d'orchestre 1951–2009. Archived from the original on July 10, 2011 . 
2. ↑ 7 Finalists Are Selected In Mitropoulos Competition . In: The New York Times , Jan 16, 1966, p. 82.
3. ^ Matthew Westphal: Angry Over Bad Review, Conductor Zdenek Mšcal Abruptly Quits Czech Philharmonic. In: Playbill . September 11, 2007 (English).