Brian Priestman Director of KUSO, Emeritus
Brian Priestman was educated at the University of Birmingham in England and the Conservatoire Royal de Bruxelles in Belgium. During his distinguished career he has held positions as Music Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, Music Director of the Edmonton Symphony, Resident Conductor of the Baltimore Symphony, Music Director of the Denver Symphony, Principal Conductor of the New Zealand National Orchestra, Principal Conductor of the Malm¸ Symphony, Music Director of the Canadian National Youth Orchestra, Principal Conductor of the Cape Town Symphony, Professor and Head of the Department of Music at the University of Cape Town, and Dean of the Faculty of Music and Director of the South African College of Music. Currently, Priestman was artist-in-residence and director of the University Symphony Orchestra at the University of Kansas until 2002.
Priestman has been a regular conductor with the BBC Symphony, Scottish, Northern, Welsch, and Northern Ireland Orchestras, the New York Opera Company at Sadler Wells Theatre, all major British orchestras espcially including HallY¨, Birmingham, Bournemouth, the London Philharmonic, and Philharmonia, Belgian, Swedish, and other European orchestras, and many major orchestras in North America. He has conducted on many occaisions for television on CBC with the Toronto and MontrY¨al Orchestras and SABC in South Africa.
Priestman records with RCA, Westminster Records, Musique en Wallonie, and Discographie du Concours Musical Reine Elizabeth. He has written articles in music periodicals and encyclopeidas including New Groves, Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, the Encyclopedia Britannica, and Music and Letters. He has been awarded honorary doctoral from Regis College, Denver, and the University of Colorado. In addition, he was awarded the Golden Lyre by the American Institute of High Fidelity for services to music in the United States.
