Conductor
An authority on the operas of Janáček and Mozart, and the comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan, Charles Mackerras was long associated with the English National Opera and Welsh National Opera. He also the first Australian chief conductor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra.
Mackerras was born to Australian parents in the United States and studied music in Sydney and Prague. He made his debut as an opera conductor at Sadler's Wells, England and went on to establish a career that earned him world-wide acclaim and many honours. He received a CBE in 1974, was knighted in 1979, appointed a Companion of Honour in 2003 and received The Medal of Merit from the Czech Republic in 1996. Mackerras was made a Companion of the Order of Australia in 1997 and was awarded a Centenary Medal in 2001. He also received honorary doctorates from the Universities of Hull, York, Nottingham, and Oxford in the United Kingdom, Brno in Czechoslovakia and Griffith (Brisbane, Australia).
