“Former Toledo Symphony Music Director Andrew Massey has passed away, according to a statement issued by symphony officials on Friday,” writes Tom Henry in Friday’s (6/1) Toledo Blade (Ohio). He was 72 and died of cancer. “Mr. Massey, who joined the Toledo Symphony as its seventh director in 1990, remained with the orchestra in that role until 2001 and continued on in 2002 as a principal guest conductor…. He was born in England and studied at Oxford University, where he earned bachelors and masters degrees…. Mr. Massey emigrated to the United States in 1978 to become the assistant conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra. According to Middlebury College in Vermont, where he served as orchestra conductor later in life, Mr. Massey had at times been associate conductor of the San Francisco Symphony and New Orleans Symphony, and a conductor or leader of the Rhode Island Philharmonic, Fresno Philharmonic, Oregon Mozart Players, the Milwaukee Symphony, the Racine Symphony, and the Indonesian National Symphony Orchestra in Jakarta.… His many firsts for the Toledo classical music community included performing Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem … Edward Elgar’s massive choral work, The Dream of Gerontius.… Mr. Massey was a composer himself, writing pieces for orchestra members.”
Posted June 4, 2018
