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First name: Sir William
Last name: Southgate
Dates:
Category: Quartet
Nationality: new zealander
Opus name: A commision of Creative New Zealand
Publisher:
Peculiarities:
Information: Sir William Southgate A Millennial Radio New Zealand documentary, featuring Elisabeth Furtwangler, Humphrey Burton and others sets the international seal on Sir William Southgate as a major interpreter of the Classic/Romantic Symphonic repertoire in the great Wand to Furtwangler/German tradition. True to that tradition and rare in our time, he is both a consummate performing musician and a composer with a significant opus including three symphonies to his credit. His musical language, firmly based in the Austro/German world of tonality, is credited with extending symphonic boundaries, renovating tradition with compelling vitality and excitement, fine old master crafting, irrepressible invention and relating to such performing composers as Mahler, Bartok and Shostakovitch. He is the first New Zealand based artist to be honoured with a Knight Bachelor. He also holds the Queen's New Zealand medal for services to music. He is the first conductor to be awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Music by a New Zealand university [Otago] and the Composers' Association of New Zealand¹s top award, the Kirk-Burnand and Brown Citation. Educated in Dunedin (New Zealand), he graduated from Otago University with first class honours in both M.A. and B.Mus. Two post-graduate scholarships enabled him to study advanced conducting at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama (London) where he was awarded the Ricordi Conductors¹ Prize. His appointment as Musical Director of the Christchurch Symphony in 1974 prompted his return to New Zealand as the first New Zealand born Musical Director of a New Zealand orchestra. In 1997 the Christchurch Symphony awarded him the title of Conductor Laureate making him the first New Zealand conductor to receive this honour. He also received Mobil Broadcasting awards for his work in television and radio. Orchestras Sir William appears with include the Hallé Orchestra, the Sydney and Melbourne Symphony Orchestras, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the Helsinki Philharmonic and the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra. © Southgate 2002, photography by Woolf, Wellington NZ