Farncombe, Charles (Frederick)

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Farncombe, Charles (Frederick)

Farncombe, Charles (Frederick), English conductor; b. London, July 29, 1919. He first studied engineering at the Univ. of London (B.S., 1940). After military service in World War II, he enrolled at the Royal School of Church Music, Canterbury, and the Royal Academy of Music, London. In 1955 he organized the Handel Opera Soc., serving as its music director and conductor. From 1970 to 1979 he was chief conductor of the Drottningholm Court Theater in Stockholm, and then music director of the London Chamber Opera (from 1983) and the Malcolm Sargent Festival Choir (from 1986). In 1977 he was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire.

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire

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