28 Facts About Jeffrey Tate

Sir Jeffrey Philip Tate was an English conductor of classical music.

Jeffrey Tate held conducting appointments with the English Chamber Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra and Hamburg Symphony Orchestra, among others, and was the first person to be appointed principal conductor of the Royal Opera House.

Jeffrey Tate was knighted for his services to music in 2017.

Jeffrey Tate was born in Salisbury, England, with spina bifida, a major birth defect, and had an associated spinal curvature, kyphosis.

Jeffrey Tate's family moved to Farnham, Surrey, when he was young and he attended Farnham Grammar School between 1954 and 1961, gaining a State Scholarship to Cambridge University, where he directed theatre productions.

Jeffrey Tate took piano lessons until he was ten, switching to the cello.

Jeffrey Tate accompanied John Kentish and later found himself working on parts of Gotterdammerung with Anne Evans.

Jeffrey Tate initially read medicine at Christ's College, Cambridge, specializing in eye surgery.

Jeffrey Tate later worked at St Thomas's Hospital, London, before giving up his clinical career to study music at the London Opera Centre from 1970 to 1971.

Jeffrey Tate became a repetiteur and a coach at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, under the tutelage of Sir Georg Solti.

Jeffrey Tate was a musical assistant to Pierre Boulez for the centenary production of The Ring at Bayreuth in 1976, working with the conductor on Lulu for the historic 1979 production at the Paris Opera which restored Act 3.

Jeffrey Tate's international conducting debut was in Carmen at the Gothenburg Opera in 1978.

Jeffrey Tate had worries about his physical ability for conducting a whole opera, but Carmen was successful and he was invited back to conduct a new production of Die Zauberflote.

Jeffrey Tate conducted the Metropolitan Opera in New York City in 1980.

In September 1986, Jeffrey Tate became principal conductor of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, the first person in the company's history to have that title.

Jeffrey Tate held this Covent Garden post until 1991, and subsequently became principal guest conductor at Covent Garden from 1991 to 1994.

Jeffrey Tate was principal conductor of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra from 1991 to 1995.

In 2005, Jeffrey Tate was appointed music director of the San Carlo Theatre of Naples, remaining in the post until 2010.

Jeffrey Tate created the Rolf Liebermann opera La Foret, based on Ostrovsky's The Forest, in Geneva in April 1987.

Jeffrey Tate conducted The Ring at the Theatre du Chatelet in Paris in 1994,.

Jeffrey Tate was principal guest conductor and artistic adviser of the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, in part as a result of his association with the orchestra from a 1998 production of the Ring, from 2016 until his death.

Jeffrey Tate was president of UK Spina Bifida charity ASBAH from 1989.

In private life, Jeffrey Tate was partners with Klaus Kuhlemann, a German geomorphologist, whom he met when conducting at Cologne from 1977.

Jeffrey Tate has described this situation as being an outsider on two scores:.

Jeffrey Tate was made a Knight Bachelor in the 2017 New Year Honours for services to British music overseas.

Jeffrey Tate was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 1990 Birthday Honours.

Jeffrey Tate conducted his last concerts on 30 and 31 May 2017, in Bolzano and Trento, with the Haydn Orchestra.

Jeffrey Tate died of a heart attack in Bergamo, Lombardy, Italy, on 2 June 2017 at the age of 74.