Edward Downes

Edward (Thomas) Downes was a well-known and highly respected British conductor. (He was not related to the American music critic, lecturer, and Metropolitan Opera Broadcast intermission commentator Edward (Olin Davenport) Downes, .) As a boy, he learned to play the violin and piano and sang in a choir. He studied at the University of Birmington (1941 - 1944) and the Royal College of Music (1944-1946). His instrument was the horn, but he also studied theory and composition. He took a position as a lecturer at Aberdeen University. In 1948 he won the Carnegie Scholarship, which ...