Sir Charles Mackerras

An expert in a wide repertory of opera and orchestral music, conductor Charles Mackerras was especially well known for his interpretations of music by Leoš Janáček and other Czech composers. He was also one of the first conductors to apply the principles of the historical performance movement to operatic performances by modern orchestras. Mackerras was born in Schenectady, New York, on November 17, 1925. His father was an Australian engineer, and when he was two, the family returned to Sydney, Australia, where he grew up. Mackerras took up the violin at age seven and later th...