Walter Susskind

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 fled to Britain when Germany invaded the city in 1939. He worked for substantial periods in Australia and the United States, as a conductor and teacher.

Süsskind was born in Prague. His father was a Viennese music critic and his Czech mother was a piano teacher. At the State Conservatorium he studied under the composer Josef Suk, the son-in-law of Dvořák. He later studied conducting under George Szell, and became Szell's assistant at the German Opera, Prague, making his conducting debut there with La traviata; early in his career, he was often known as H. W. Süsskind (H for Hans or Hanuš).

Susskind fled Prague on 13 March 1939, two days before the German invasion. With the help of a British journalist and consular officials, he arrived in Britain as a refugee. 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.

In 1942 Susskind joined the Carl Rosa Opera Company as a conductor, working with singers such as Heddle Nash and Joan Hammond. The following year he married the British cellist Eleanor Catherine Warren. In 1944 he made his first recording for Walter Legge of EMI, conducting Liu's arias from Turandot with Hammond.

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.

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

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