Stuart Challender

Challender was born in February 1947 at Hobart. His initial passion for music came from his grandmother, Thelma Driscoll, who used to sing to him as a child. In 1960, his father took him to a performance of Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony conducted by Tibor Paul,[http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/stories/s351714.htm ABC: Four Corners, 23 August 2001] from which he decided to become a conductor.{{cite news | agency=Associated Press | title=Stuart Challender, 44, Australian Conductor | url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D0CE1DD1230F937A25751C1A967958260 | work=The New York Times | date=14 December 1991 | accessdate=24 August 2007}}

In 1964, at age 17, Challender attended the Victorian Conservatorium of Music, at the University of Melbourne. From 1966 he worked with the then Victorian Opera Company. In 1968 he graduated from the Conservatorium and was the Victorian Opera Company's music director.{{cite interview | subject=Stuart Challender | interviewer=Liz Jackson | url=http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/stories/s351714.htm | title=Reflections from the Nineties: The Big Finish | work=Four Corners | publisher=ABC | date=23 August 2001 | accessdate=24 August 2007}}

Challender began his professional conducting career in 1970. His first engagement was Kiss Me, Kate, for the Lucerne Opera. He was appointed assistant conductor at the Staatstheater Nürnberg; then came engagements in Switzerland at Zürich and Basel, where he was resident conductor at the Opera House from 1976 to 1980.

Upon returning to Australia from Europe, he joined the staff of The Australian Opera. In late 1980 Challender was assigned to conduct a single performance of The Barber of Seville, and soon after he was appointed resident conductor of the Elizabethan Sydney Orchestra and went on to conduct many of the great standards of opera.

Challender succeeded Zdeněk Mácal as chief conductor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra from 1987 to 1991, to great acclaim. In Australia's bicentennial year (1988), he led the orchestra in a successful tour of the United States, a 12-city tour that culminated with a concert at the United Nations General Assembly in New York to mark 200 years of European settlement in Australia. He conducted the Boston Symphony Orchestra in Hong Kong in 1989 and in 1990 conducted the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in four concerts. Several recordings which he made with the SSO are still available on commercially released CDs.

On 26 January 1991, he was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) "in recognition of services to music".{{cite web| title =It's an Honour – Officer of the Order of Australia| publisher =Australian Government| url =https://honours.pmc.gov.au/honours/awards/869793| accessdate =30 July 2009| archive-date =16 December 2017| archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20171216034613/http://www.itsanhonour.gov.au/honours/honour_roll/search.cfm?aus_award_id=869793&search_type=quick&showInd=true| url-status =live}} In June of that year, his health visibly failing, Challender conducted his last concert in Hobart, with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra.

Challender died of an AIDS-related disease on 13 December 1991. One week later, on 20 December, at the Sydney Town Hall, Justice Michael Kirby led the speakers at a celebration of Challender's life. A seven-minute piece for solo cello by Peter Sculthorpe titled Threnody: In memoriam Stuart Challender was performed by David Pereira.[http://www.petersculthorpe.com.au/new_page_3.htm Chronological List of Works by Peter Sculthorpe] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090729033724/http://www.petersculthorpe.com.au/new_page_3.htm |date=29 July 2009 }}.

In his will, Challender provided for the establishment of the Stuart Challender Foundation, to aid the training and development of future Australian conductors. He bequeathed his extensive collection of scores to the Music Library at the University of Tasmania.

Ross Edwards's Symphony No. 1 Da Pacem Domine (1995) was dedicated to Challender's memory.

All recordings with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra.

• Voss, opera by Richard Meale (Philips, 1987)
• 1812 - Danny Boy - Bolero (ABC, 1989)
• Symphony Under the Stars (ABC, 1989)
• Earth Cry - Kakadu - Mangrove, works by Peter Sculthorpe (ABC, 1989)
• Carl Vine: Three Symphonies (ABC, 1991)
• Nexus - Nocturnes (Vox Australis, 1991)

The ARIA Music Awards is an annual awards ceremony that recognises excellence, innovation, and achievement across all genres of Australian music.{{Cite web|url=https://www.aria.com.au/awards/past-winners/1991|title=1991 ARIA Awards Winners}}

{{awards table}}

|-

| 1991

| Sculthorpe: Orchestral Works (with Sydney Symphony Orchestra)

| Best Classical Album

| {{won}}

|-

| 1992

| Vine: Three Symphonies (with Sydney Symphony Orchestra)

| Best Classical Album

| {{won}}

|-

| 1994

| Ross Edwards Orchestral Works (with Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Dene Olding and Porcelijn)

| Best Classical Album

| {{won}}

|-

{{end}}

The Australian Entertainment Mo Awards (commonly known informally as the Mo Awards), were annual Australian entertainment industry awards. They recognise achievements in live entertainment in Australia from 1975 to 2016. Stuart Challender won three awards in that time.{{cite web|url=https://www.moawards.com.au/awardwinners|title=MO Award Winners|website=Mo Awards|access-date=16 March 2022}}

{{awards table}} (wins only)

|-

| 1989

| Stuart Challender

| Australian Performer of the Year

| {{won}}

|-

| 1990

| Stuart Challender

| Classical Performance of the Year

| {{won}}

|-

| 1991

| Stuart Challender

| Classical Performance of the Year

| {{won}}

|-

{{end}}

• Davis, Richard. Close to the Flame: the Life of Stuart Challender, Wakefield Press, 2017, Sydney{{Cite web|url=https://musicaustralia.org.au/2018/01/stuart-challender-revealed-up-close-in-new-biography/|title=Stuart Challender Revealed up Close in New Biography|access-date=23 October 2020|archive-date=24 March 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220324104301/https://musicaustralia.org.au/2018/01/stuart-challender-revealed-up-close-in-new-biography/|url-status=dead}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.cutcommonmag.com/world-aids-day-understanding-stuart-challenders-story/|title = World AIDS Day: Understand conductor Stuart Challender's story | CutCommon|date = 30 November 2017}}

{{reflist}}

• [http://www.ausstage.edu.au/indexdrilldown.jsp?xcid=59&f_contrib_id=5207 Stuart Challender in AusStage]
• [http://www.bruceduffie.com/challender.html Interview with Stuart Challender], November 1, 1988

{{s-start}}

{{s-culture}}

{{s-bef | before = Zdeněk Mácal}}

{{s-ttl | title = Chief Conductor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra

| years = 1987–1991}}

{{s-aft | after = Edo de Waart}}

{{end}}

{{Sydney Symphony conductors}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Challender, Stuart}}

Category:1947 births

Category:1991 deaths

Category:ARIA Award winners

Category:Officers of the Order of Australia

Category:Australian LGBTQ musicians

Category:AIDS-related deaths in Australia

Category:LGBTQ classical musicians

Category:20th-century Australian conductors (music)

Category:Musicians from Hobart

Category:20th-century Australian LGBTQ people

Category:Chief conductors of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra