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Jan Walter Susskind (1 May 1913 – 25 March 1980) was a Czech-born British conductor, teacher and pianist. He began his career in his native Prague and travelled to London in March 1939 when Germany invaded Czechoslovakia. He worked for substantial periods in Australia, Canada and the United States, as a conductor and teacher.

BiographyEdit

Süsskind was born in Prague.<ref name=grove>Bernas, Richard and Ruth B Hilton. "Susskind, Walter", Grove Music Online, Oxford University Press. Retrieved 27 June 2014 Template:Subscription required</ref> His father was a Viennese music critic and his Czech mother was a piano teacher.<ref name=gram/> At the State Conservatorium he studied under the composer Josef Suk, the son-in-law of Dvořák.<ref name=gram/> He later studied conducting under George Szell,<ref name=gram/> and became Szell's assistant at the German Opera, Prague, making his conducting debut there with La traviata;<ref name=grove/> early in his career, he was often known as H. W. Süsskind (H for Hans or Hanuš).Template:Citation needed

Susskind was giving a piano recital in Amsterdam in March 1939 when Germany occupied Czechoslovakia, and his mother advised him not to return home. (She was later interned in Theresienstadt but survived the war).<ref name=gram/> With the help of a British journalist and consular officials, he arrived in Britain as a refugee.<ref name=gram/> He formed the Czech Trio, a chamber ensemble in which he was the pianist. Encouraged by Jan Masaryk, the Czech ambassador in London, the trio obtained many engagements.<ref name=gram/>

In 1942 Susskind joined the Carl Rosa Opera Company as a conductor, working with singers such as Heddle Nash and Joan Hammond,<ref name=grove/><ref name=gram/> and married (1943-1953) the British cellist Eleanor Catherine Warren.<ref name=obitelen>"Eleanor Warren obituary", The Daily Telegraph, 10 October 2005. Accessed 6 October 2019.</ref> In 1944 he made his first recording for Walter Legge of EMI, conducting Liu's arias from Turandot with Hammond.<ref name=gram />

After the war, Susskind became a naturalised British citizen, and though he spent much of his subsequent career outside Britain, he said he would never dream of giving up his British citizenship.<ref name=gram>"Walter Susskind", Gramophone, April 1972, pp. 1693–1694</ref>

Susskind's first appointment as musical director was to the Scottish Orchestra, where he served from 1946 to 1952.<ref name=grove/> He and his wife divorced in 1953.<ref name=obitelen/> From 1953 to 1955 he was the conductor of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (then known as the Victorian Symphony Orchestra).<ref name=grove/> After free-lancing in Israel and South America he was appointed to head the Toronto Symphony Orchestra (TSO) from 1956 to 1965.<ref name=grove/><ref name=gram/>

In 1960 he founded the National Youth Orchestra of Canada.<ref name=grove/> In 1962 he gave the World premiere of the Four Epigrams for Symphony Orchestra by Rudi Martinus van Dijk with the CBC Symphony as part of the CBC's National School Broadcast series Finding Out about Music. While with the TSO he taught conducting at The Royal Conservatory of Music where among his pupils were Milton Barnes and Rudy Toth.Template:Citation needed As he was leaving his post at the TSO, he was featured in a CFTO television special, "Inside the Toronto Symphony", produced and directed by Peter Macfarlane. <ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

From 1968 to 1975 he was conductor of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra with which he made more than 200 recordings.<ref name=grove/> During his seven-year tenure with St. Louis, he taught across the Mississippi River at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. He was also closely involved with the Mississippi River Festival, an annually recurring outdoors crossover concert series organised by the local university.

Susskind served as artistic advisor of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra from 1978 until his death in 1980.

On May 3, 1971, Susskind returned to the New York City Opera to conduct Leoš Janáček's Makropulos Case.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Susskind died in Berkeley, California, at the age of 66.<ref name=grove/> His personal archives document his career as a conductor, piano accompanist and avant-garde composer. The BBC Radio 3 program Music Matters broadcast 29 Jan. 2022 an interview with Susskind's widow Janis, in the process of transferring these materials to the Exilarte Centre, University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Discography (selection)Edit

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Recordings include:

NotesEdit

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External linksEdit

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