Patrick Flynn, 72 - Riverside County Philharmonic's music director
Bob Feigel
From the Los Angeles Times
Patrick Flynn dies at 72; Riverside County Philharmonic's music
director
By Mary Rourke
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
September 25, 2008
Patrick Flynn, the music director of the Riverside County Philharmonic
for 19 years who also guest-conducted ballet, opera and classical
orchestras around the world, has died. He was 72.
Flynn died Sept. 10 of a pulmonary embolism at Cedars-Sinai Medical
Center in Los Angeles, said Jacqueline Porter, a former wife who
remained a close friend. He had been a resident of Los Angeles.
"For most of his life, Patrick brought beautiful symphonic music to
thousands of music lovers around the world," James B. Henderson,
president of the Riverside County Philharmonic board of directors,
said in a statement on the orchestra’s website. This season the
orchestra will be led by guest conductors until a new music director
is named.
Flynn began his music career in Sydney, Australia, in the late 1960s,
working as a composer and conductor. He wrote scores for Australian
films including "Mad Dog Morgan" (1976) with Dennis Hopper as a
bushranger in the 1860s. He also wrote a rock opera, "Ned Kelly,"
based on the life of the Australian outlaw. It premiered in Sydney in
1978.
Starting in the late 1960s, Flynn conducted a number of Australian
productions of Broadway musicals, including "Hair," and was a frequent
guest conductor with the Australian Opera in Sydney. He worked with
internationally known opera singers Dame Joan Sutherland and Kiri Te
Kanawa, among others.
Flynn moved to New York City in the late 1970s and was a staff
conductor with the American Ballet Theatre for two years. He continued
to build a career as a guest conductor working with top-flight
orchestras. He led performances by the BBC Orchestra in London, the
Paris Opera and Finnish National Opera, among others. For several
years he was a principal guest conductor for the North Carolina
Symphony in Raleigh.
In the 1980s, Flynn wrote orchestrations and incidental music for
several full-length productions of the American Ballet Theatre,
including "Don Quixote," created by Mikhail Baryshnikov. He also
conducted ballet performances by the Dance Theatre of Harlem, the San
Francisco Ballet and other leading companies.
Flynn was born in Birmingham, England, on May 18, 1936. He studied
piano for many years and graduated from the Royal Academy of Music in
London with a diploma in conducting. After graduation, he continued
his studies with British conductor Sir John Barbirolli for about 10
years.
He served in the British Army for two years in the mid-1960s, giving
piano concerts for British troops and the general public in Singapore
and other Asian cities.
He continued guest-conducting after he was named music director of the
Riverside County Philharmonic in 1989.
For one concert by the Los Angeles Mozart Orchestra in 1992, Flynn
"put together a challenging, emotionally resonant agenda" and
"conducted it with authority and wit," according to a review in The
Times.
Both of Flynn's marriages ended in divorce. He has no immediate
survivors.
Members of the Riverside Philharmonic are planning a memorial service
for Flynn on Oct. 5 at 2 p.m. at the Riverside Municipal Auditorium,
3485 Mission Inn Ave.
--
"It's not that I'm afraid to die. I just don't want to be there when it happens." - Woody Allen
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Wax-up and drop-in of Surfing's Golden Years: <http://www.surfwriter.net>
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mack
"Bob Feigel" <b...@surfwriter.net.not> wrote in message
news:qoamd4tnc1aarqtis...@4ax.com...
> http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-flynn25-2008sep25,0,4130000.story
>
> From the Los Angeles Times
>
> Patrick Flynn dies at 72; Riverside County Philharmonic's music
> director
>
> By Mary Rourke
> Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
>
> September 25, 2008
>
> Patrick Flynn, the music director of the Riverside County Philharmonic
> for 19 years who also guest-conducted ballet, opera and classical
> orchestras around the world, has died. He was 72.
>
> Flynn died Sept. 10 of a pulmonary embolism at Cedars-Sinai Medical
> Center in Los Angeles, said Jacqueline Porter, a former wife who
> remained a close friend. He had been a resident of Los Angeles.
I'm sorry to read this. I attended half a dozen or more of Flynn's
concerts in Riverside over the years, and found him both an excellent
conductor and an instructive commentator on the music presented. He always
seemed to include
lots of relatively obscure, but fine, music.
RIP.