Lankester, Michael (John)

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Lankester, Michael (John)

Lankester, Michael (John), English conductor; b. London, Nov. 12, 1944. He studied at the Royal Coll. of Music in London (1962–67). After making his formal conducting debut with the English Chamber Orch. in London (1967), he was a conductor (1969–80) and head of the opera dept. (1975–80) at the Royal Coll. of Music. He also was founder-conductor of Contrapuncti (1967–79) and music director of the National Theatre of Great Britain (1969–74) and of the Surrey Phil. (1974–79). He was asst. conductor (1980–82), assoc. conductor (1982–84), and conductor-in-residence (1984–88) of the Pittsburgh Sym. Orch.; was also music director of the Hartford (Conn.) Sym. Orch. (from 1986).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire