Conductor loses use of right arm while recovering from stroke
NewsThe Welsh conductor Grant Llewellyn has beeon one of the sturdiest performers on the UK and international cirtcuit for decades. A regular at the BBC Proms, he is also music director of the of the North Carolina Symphony and Orchestre Symphonique de Bretagne.
Last summer Llewellyn, who was 59 at the time, went to hospital with disturbing symptoms and found he was suffering a series of small strokes.
He spent a month in hospital and is now back on the box – but without a baton, or the use of his right arm.
‘That’s where I am now, it’s a voyage of discovery,’ he says.
He describes the slow process of recovery here in an interview with the BBC.
Llewellyn’s term as music director of the North Carolina Symphony ended last summer — nopt long before he had the stroke, it seems.
I had the pleasure of working with Grant 20 years ago and recommended him to the North Carolina Symphony. He was also M.D. of the Handel & Haydn Society in Boston for several years. A wonderful conductor, a wonderful person. Speedy recovery Maestro!
I always thought Grant could best many a conductor with one arm tied behind his back. This proves it!
Hope he keeps up his recovery and keeps the music flowing.
Thanks for the report.
As others have commented, Grant Llewellyn is a very interesting and insightful conductor with a wide-ranging, varied career to boot. A man who never struck me as one to shy away from a challenge, and this proves it. Would be very interested to hear more of his experiences as he continues on this most personal and professionally probing of journeys. All the best to him for a full recovery, keep the music flowing, Maestro!
Well, there are piano concertos for the land hand, so why not a left handed conductor too? Bad joke. I hope he recovers soon.
Dymuniadau gorau am wellhad buan a llawn!
I remember his Nielsen 4 in 1992, amazing!