Alexander Gibson (conductor)

Alexander Gibson (conductor)

Sir Alexander Drummond Gibson CBE FRSE FRSAMD Hon RAM FRCM RSA FRSA (11 February 1926 – 14 January 1995) was a Scottish conductor and opera intendant.

Gibson was born in Motherwell and was educated at Dalziel High School. He later studied music at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow, as well as in London, Salzburg and Siena, Italy. He was Assistant Conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra 1952-54 and conducted two productions for the amateur Glasgow Grand Opera Society in 1954. At the time of his appointment in 1957 as musical director of Sadler's Wells, he was the youngest ever to have taken that position.

Returning to Glasgow, in 1959 he became the first Scottish principal conductor and artistic director of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, a post he held until 1984, to date longer than any other conductor. Under his leadership the orchestra built an international reputation through recordings and foreign tours and appeared regularly in the Edinburgh International Festival and in London at The Proms. From 1981 to 1983 he was also principal guest conductor of the Houston Symphony Orchestra. He was principal conductor of the Guildford Philharmonic.

Gibson founded Scottish Opera in 1962 and was music director until 1986. Through his artistic achievements the Theatre Royal, Glasgow was bought from Scottish Television and transformed in 1975 as the home theatre of Scottish Opera and of Scottish Ballet, and the first national opera house in Scotland. In 1987, Gibson was appointed conductor laureate of Scottish Opera and held this title for the remainder of his life.

He was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1967, was knighted in 1977 and became president of the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, where in his memory, the Alexander Gibson School of Opera was opened in 1998. It was the first purpose-built opera school in Great Britain.

Gibson had a particular affinity for Scandinavian music, particularly Jean Sibelius, whose work he recorded several times, and Carl Nielsen. He was awarded Finland's Sibelius Medal in recognition of his distinguished service to the composer's music. He was strongly committed to contemporary music and in 1961 he founded a new music festival in Glasgow originally called Musica Viva, later Musica Nova. Among the many important premieres he conducted there was the first British performance of Gruppen by Karlheinz Stockhausen. He was also a constant advocate of new music by Scottish composers. In the opera house he was regarded as a particularly fine interpreter of Mozart and Wagner,conducting the complete Ring des Nibelungen with Scottish Opera in 1971. He was equally at home in the Italian repertoire. In 1969 he conducted a memorable Scottish Opera production of Les Troyens by Berlioz - the first ever complete performance of both parts of the opera in one evening.

Alexander Gibson died from complications following a heart attack. He was 68.

Gibson is also commemorated by a bust in foyer of the Theatre Royal, Glasgow, home of Scottish Opera. Also, a street in his hometown Motherwell is named after him, Alexander Gibson Way.