Jerzy Semkow (12 October 1928 – 23 December 2014) was a Polish

conductor Conductor or conduction may refer to: Music * Conductor (music), a person who leads a musical ensemble, such as an orchestra. * ''Conductor'' (album), an album by indie rock band The Comas * Conduction, a type of structured free improvisation ...

. Semkow was born in

Radomsko Radomsko is a city in southern Poland with 44,700 inhabitants (2021). It is situated on the Radomka river in the Łódź Voivodeship (since 1999), having previously been in Piotrków Trybunalski Voivodeship (1975–1998). It is the county se ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, , is a country in Central Europe. Poland is divided into Voivodeships of Poland, sixteen voivodeships and is the fifth most populous member state of the European Union (EU), with over 38 mill ...

, later took French citizenship and resided in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. ...

. He studied in Cracow and Leningrad. His conducting mentors included Erich Kleiber, Bruno Walter, and Tullio Serafin. He was an assistant conductor with Yevgeny Mravinsky with the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra. Semkow held posts as artistic director of the National Opera in Warsaw (1958-1959), principal conductor of the National Opera in Warsaw (1959–62), principal conductor of the Royal Danish Opera and the Royal Danish Orchestra in

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

(1966–76), as well as Music Director of the Orchestra of Radio-Televisione Italiana (RAI) in Rome. In the USA, Semkow served as music director of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (1975–79), and as music advisor and principal conductor of the Rochester Philharmonic (1985–89). He was a regular guest conductor of the National Philharmonic in Warsaw and of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra over a 40-year period, including guest appearances over 24 consecutive seasons from 1986 to 2009. Semkow lectured on music at the University of Colorado and conducted master classes at Yale University and New York's Manhattan School of Music. He recorded commercially with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra for the Vox/Turnabout label. Awarded the French order Arts et Lettres (2000) and received honorary doctorate from the Music Academy in Warsaw (2005) and from Music Academy in Łódź (2013). Semkow died near

Lausanne Lausanne ( , , , ) ; it, Losanna; rm, Losanna. is the capital and largest city of the Swiss French speaking canton of Vaud. It is a hilly city situated on the shores of Lake Geneva, about halfway between the Jura Mountains and the Alps, and fac ...

, Switzerland on 23 December 2014, aged 86. His biography was published the same year, authored by Małgorzata Komorowska.

References

External links

Jerzy Semkow
at the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra
Polish Radio, '"Był księciem batuty". Jerzy Semkow nie żyje' 24 December 2014 (article in Polish)

1928 births 2014 deaths Naturalized citizens of France Polish emigrants to France Polish conductors (music) Male conductors (music) French male conductors (music) 20th-century French conductors (music) 21st-century French conductors (music) People from Radomsko 20th-century French male musicians 21st-century French male musicians {{poland-conductor-stub