Conductor James Lockhart has Died, Aged 94

Lockhart was the first British conductor to hold a General Music Director position in Germany

Scottish conductor James Lockhart has passed away at the age of 94.

Born in 1930, Lockhart studied initially in Edinburgh, before progressing to London's Royal College of Music. He spent the early part of his career working as a repetiteur, including in Münster, Munich, Glyndebourne, Covent Garden, and Sadler's Wells.

Between 1968 and 1972, he served as the Music Director of the Welsh National Opera. He was then appointed as the first British General Music Director of a German opera company at the Staatstheater Kassel. During this time, he led performances of Aïda, The Ring, Death in Venice, The Queen of Spades, Ariadne auf Naxos, Lohengrin, Die schweigsame Frau, Kátya Kabanová, and Wozzeck.

Lockhart returned to the UK in 1986, where he served as the Director of Opera at the Royal College of Music until 1992.

In a 1970 episode of the BBC's Desert Island Discs program, Lockhart said that Verdi's Triumphal March was his favorite piece of music — while the collected works of John Donne would be his choice of a desert island read.

Our condolences to Lockhart's family, friends, and colleagues.