MARTIN TURNOVSKÝ

The world renowned Czech conductor Martin Turnovský has died in Vienna at the age of 92.

Martin Turnovský studied conducting at the Prague Academy of Music as a pupil of Karel Ančerl. He won the first prize at the International Conductors Competition of 1958 in Besançon, France.

From 1963 to 1983, he was appointed chief conductor of the Radio Symphony Orchestra Plzeň, the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden and Semperoper, the Norwegian National Opera and the Opera in Bonn. He was also permanent guest conductor of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra. After the entry of the Warsaw Pact nations into Czechoslovakia in 1968, Turnovský emigrated to Austria and was granted Austrian citizenship. He conducted many more symphony orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the Seattle Symphony, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, l'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the Vienna Symphony, the Bamberg Symphony, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, the Gunma Symphony Orchestra (as Honorary conductor), the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, and other orchestras.

Following the revolutions of 1989 he returned to Prague and he became chief conductor of the Prague Symphony Orchestra from 1992 to 1995.