Jeffrey Tate Jeffrey Tate

Sir Jeffrey Philip Tate CBE(28 April 1943 – 2 June 2017) was an English conductor of classical music. After studying medicine at the University of Cambridgeand beginning a medical career in London, he switched to music and worked under Georg Soltiat the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, before making his conducting debut in 1979 at the Metropolitan Opera, New York. He held conducting appointments with the English Chamber Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestraand Hamburg Symphony Orchestra, among others, and was the first person to be appointed principal conductor of the Royal Opera House. Tate was born with spina bifidaand had an associated spinal curvature. As a disabled gay musician, he regarded himself as an outsider in two ways. He was knighted for his services to music in 2017.

Early life

Tate was born in Salisbury, England, with spina bifida, a major birth defect, and also had an associated spinal curvature, kyphosis. His family moved to Farnham, Surrey, when he was young and he attended Farnham Grammar Schoolbetween 1954 and 1961, gaining a State Scholarshipto Cambridge University, where he directed theatre productions. Tate initially read medicine at Christ's College, Cambridge(1961–64), specializing in eye surgery.He later worked at St Thomas's Hospital, London, before giving up his clinical career to study music at the London Opera Centre. He became a repetiteurand a coach at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, under the tutelage of Sir Georg Solti.

Career

Tate's international conducting début was with the Metropolitan Operain New York Cityin 1979. In 1985, he was appointed the first principal conductor of the English Chamber Orchestra(ECO), and held the post until 2000. His recordings with the ECO included issues with EMI of symphonies of Haydn.In September 1986, Tate became principal conductor of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, the first person in the company's history to have that title.He held this Covent Garden post until 1991, and subsequently became principal guest conductor at Covent Garden from 1991 to 1994.He was principal conductor of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestrafrom 1991 to 1995. In 2005, Tate was appointed music director of the San Carlo Theatreof Naples, remaining in the post until 2010.

In October 2007, the Hamburg Symphony Orchestraannounced the appointment of Tate as its next chief conductor.He formally took up the post in 2009. In February 2014, the orchestra announced the extension of his contract as chief conductor until 2019.He held the Hamburg post until his death on 2 June 2017. Tate was principal guest conductor and artistic adviser of the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, in part as a result of his association with the orchestra from a 1998 production of Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen, from 2016 until his death.

Tate's recordings include a series of Mozart piano concertos with Dame Mitsuko Uchida.Tate was president of UK Spina Bifida charityASBAH(now SHINE [Spina Bifida, Hydrocephalus, Information, Networking, Equality]) from 1989. A portrait of Jeffrey Tate is in David Blum's bookQuintet, Five Journeys toward Musical Fulfillment(Cornell University Press, 1999). It originally appeared as an article in 30 April 1990 issue of The New Yorker.

In private life, Tate was partners with Klaus Kuhlemann, a German geomorphologist, whom he met when conducting at Cologne from 1977.Tate has described this situation as being an outsider on two scores:

The gay world is immensely hung up with physical perfection for some curious reason ... Therefore, being disabled in that world is harder.

Tate and Kuhlemann eventually married.

Tate was made a Knight Bachelorin the 2017 New Year Honoursfor services to British music overseas.He was also appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire(CBE) in the 1990 Birthday Honours.Tate conducted his last concerts on 30 and 31 May 2017, in Bolzano and Trento, with the Haydn Orchestra.He died of a heart attackin Bergamo, Lombardy, Italy, on 2 June 2017 at the age of 74. Kuhlemann, his spouse, survives him.