Denis Vaughan

Denis Edward Vaughan (born 6 June 1926) is an Australian-born orchestral conductor and multi-instrumentalist. In 1950, he joined the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London and by 1966 had settled in Rome. He is a campaigner for wider access to arts and culture for young people, and promotes the health benefits of music, the arts and sport. He returned to the United Kingdom and from 1987 he became more widely known as the driving force behind the creation of that country's National Lottery. He is president of CAARE (Council for the Advancement of Arts, Recreation & Education), the charity he founded in 1996. Also in 1996, Vaughan was diagnosed with prostate cancer.

Denis Edward Vaughan was born on 6 June 1926 in Melbourne, Australia. He graduated from University of Melbourne with a Bachelor of Music in 1947. He won a scholarship to study organ and double bass at England's Royal College of Music (1947–1950), under the tutelage of George Thalben-Ball and Eugene Cruft. In March and April 1949 he represented the Organ Music Society in performances at St Luke's Church, Chelsea. In October then-Princess Elizabeth of York (see Elizabeth II) presented Vaughan with the Tagore Gold Medal for general achievement during 1949. In March the following year he performed with George Malcolm for the Organ Music Society at King's College Chapel, University of London.

In 1950, he joined the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO) and went on tour to the United States with Thomas Beecham. By 1954 Vaughan was assistant conductor and chorus master of the RPO and formed the Beecham Choral Society. In the 1950s and early 1960s he participated in annual concerts featuring four harpsichordists, with Malcolm, Thurston Dart and fellow Australian, Eileen Joyce. In 1957 this group recorded two of Vivaldi's Concertos for Four Harpsichords, one in a Bach arrangement, with the Pro Arte Orchestra under Boris Ord. They also recorded Malcolm's Variations on a Theme of Mozart. The ensemble's works were issued in June 1958 by Angel Records for the US market. He followed with engagements at La Scala, Hamburg and Munich opera houses and a season at Bayreuth as assistant to Hans Knappertsbusch. In 1959, together with Klemperer, Celibidache, Bernstein and Maazel, Vaughan was invited to conduct one of the special concerts performed in Parma in honour of Arturo Toscanini. At that time he corresponded with Italian conductor Gianandrea Gavazzeni on the works of Giacomo Puccini and Giuseppe Verdi.

...
Wikipedia