Vale Andre Previn

The visionary composer and conductor Andre Previn has died aged 89. His diverse positions included a stint as the principal conductor of the London Symphony and as music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Pittsburgh Symphony; he wrote concertos, opera, song cycles, film scores and chamber music, winning four Oscars and numerous other nominations.

His collaborators included Renee Fleming, Kathleen Battle, Ella Fitzgerald, Ravi Shankar (with whom he wrote a Concerto for Sitar and Orchestra) and Anne-Sophie Mutter.

Previn’s opera A Streetcar Named Desire was staged in Sydney in 2009, directed by Bruce Beresford with Yvonne Kenny an Blanche, Antoinette Halloran as Stella, Teddy Tahu Rhodes as Stanley and Stuart Skelton as Mitch.

Read his obituary in the New York Times and The Guardian