Timely Minutiae

Colin Davis made his first North American appearance in Minnesota, conducting the Minneapolis Symphony in December 1960.

It is likely that Davis’s Minneapolis engagement had been arranged by Antal Dorati, whose tenure as Music Director of the Minneapolis Symphony had concluded a few months earlier.

The 1960-1961 Minneapolis Symphony season was the first with Stanislaw Skrowaczewski at the helm of the orchestra—and it is doubtful that Skrowaczewski had had any input into the selection of that season’s guest conductors. Skrowaczewski had never conducted the Minneapolis Symphony—or even visited Minnesota—prior to his appointment as Music Director. Skrowaczewski first set foot in Minneapolis, sight unseen, shortly before the 1960-1961 season began.

After Dorati stepped down from the Minneapolis Symphony, he moved to London and became Music Director of the BBC Symphony, a post he held until 1966.

Dorati’s successor at the BBC Symphony: Davis.