Jeffrey Tate

Even Jeffrey Tate voiced surprise at the reach of his own achievements, having appeared as a guest conductor across nearly every major concert hall and opera house on the globe. In contrast to the often self-focused, constantly traveling conductors of later generations, he built his career strictly from an unadorned devotion to music, achieved only after confronting profound personal obstacles.

Those obstacles surfaced in childhood with a diagnosis of spina bifida. Lengthy hospital confinements punctuated his early life, yet physicians guided him to walk with the aid of a cane, although he remained seated for performances. Overcoming these limitations, he read medicine at the University of Cambridge and received his medical degree in 1969, a gesture of gratitude toward the discipline that had sustained and improved his existence.

A gifted pianist from an early age, Tate performed regularly during his hospital stays. Still, his wide-ranging pursuits—reading, cooking, and church-crawling among them—postponed his deeper engagement with music until later years. Once that focus sharpened, he joined the Royal Opera House in London as a repetiteur, absorbing the methods of leading conductors, among them Georg Solti. He went on to serve as assistant to Herbert von Karajan in Salzburg, Pierre Boulez in Bayreuth, and James Levine at the Metropolitan Opera. In 1978, at the age of 35, he made his professional conducting debut with a well-received production of Bizet’s Carmen at the Gothenburg Opera. Two years later he created a stir by stepping in for James Levine to lead Berg’s demanding Lulu.

Appointed principal guest conductor of the English Chamber Orchestra in 1985, Tate oversaw a series of admired EMI Classics recordings that presented Haydn and Mozart in versions for modern instruments. After Gary Bertini’s death he advanced from principal conductor to music director of the Theatre San Carlo of Naples in 2005. An earlier staging of Humperdinck’s Die Königskinder at the same house had already earned critical praise and the Franco Abbiati Prize in 2002. His Ring cycles in both Paris and Australia likewise drew exceptional reviews while generating strong ticket sales.

French and British authorities awarded Tate the Chevalier de la Légion d’honneur, the Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres, and the title of Commander of the British Empire. Beginning in 1989 he also chaired the Association for Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus. Jeffrey Tate died of a heart attack in June 2017 at the age of 74.