Maestro, 93, cancels summer dates
mainThe much-loved Stanislaw Skrowaczewski has cancelled a concert in June, giving illness as the reason.
We send all good wishes for his recovery.
Music director of the Minnesota Orchestra from 1960 to 1979, staunchly supporting the musicians during their 2012-14 lockout, he has returned regularly to the US with renewed inspiration. From 1984 to 1991 Skrowaczewski was Principal Conductor of the Hallé orchestra in Manchester, England.
He is the dean of the great living conductors. Blomstedt will be 90 this year. Alberto Zedda turned 89 recently and von Dóhnanyi, Previn and Haitink will soon be 88. Pity Gielen ( born in 1927 ) has retired.
A magnificent conductor and a magnificent human being. I wish for him a return to good health and to the podium.
It worried me that he felt sure that his sickness now meant he wouldn’t be able to conduct in June. That would be pretty serious.
But now I see that the concert is in Germany, and I could well understand his doctor telling a 93-year-old that he’s not well enough to fly across an ocean and won’t be for months.
Stan suffered a stroke in November not long after conducting a really magnificent Bruckner 8th with the Minnesota Orchestra. There has been no public word about his condition, and one imagines that the odds of his return to coonducting are long. He and his late wife maintained their home just outside of Minneapolis for the past 55 years or so. His annual concerts with the Minnesota Orchestra for years have been major events. BTW, Frederick Harris of MIT wrote an excellent biography in a few years ago called Seeking the Infinite: The Musical Life of Stanislaw Skrowaczewski.
According to Google, poor man seems to have had a stroke.
http://www.bruceduffie.com/skrowaczewski.html
Another interview with him and Bruce Duffie in Chicago, which I typed up not so long ago.