Vilém Tauský
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Vilém Tauský (July 20, 1910 - March 16, 2004) was a Czech conductor and composer. He was born in Přerov, Moravia.
He studied with Leoš Janáček and, at the age of 19, conducted Giacomo Puccini's Turandot in Brno. The rise of the Nazis forced him to move to France and then to the United Kingdom.
On 26 December 1953 Tauský became possibly the only conductor to conduct two operas at Covent Garden on the same day, with a performance of Engelbert Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel in the afternoon and Giuseppe Verdi's Il Trovatore in the evening.
He was conductor of the BBC Concert Orchestra from 1956 to 1967. He regularly appeared with this orchestra on the BBC Light Programme's long-running weekly show Friday Night is Music Night. Between 1966 and 1992 he was the director of opera at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
In 1979, he published a volume of his memoirs under the title Vilem Tausky Tells his Story (ISBN 0852494785). In 1981 he was awarded a CBE.
