Death of an Anglo-American orchestra manager

We’ve had sad news of the death of cancer of John Duffy, who had more orchestras than hot breakfasts.

Liverpool born, John was Personnel Manager of the London Symphony Orchestra in the 1970s. In 1986 he joined the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra as Personnel Manager for Lorin Maazel. Five years later he upped to Artistic and Operations manager at the New World Symphony.

John was also Tour and Personnel Manager of the European Youth Orchestra (1981-1986), using his contacts to build a new professional orchestra in Kuala Lumpur, the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra. Other orchestras he worked for include the Hong Kong Philharmonic, Chamber Orchestra of Europe abd Asian Philharmonic Orchestra,

John started out as Principal Double Bass at the Halle under Sir John Barbirolli, before moving to London to play in the LSO.