Vaughan, Denis (Edward)

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Vaughan, Denis (Edward)

Vaughan, Denis (Edward), Australian conductor and music scholar; b. Melbourne, June 6, 1926. He studied at Wesley Coll., Melbourne (1939-12), and at the Univ. of Melbourne (Mus.B., 1947), then went to London, where he studied organ with G. Thalben-Ball and double bass with E. Cruft at the Royal Coll. of Music (1947-50); also studied organ with A. Marchai in Paris. He played double bass in the Royal Phil. in London (1950-54); in 1953 he made his debut as a conductor in London; served as Beecham’s assistant (1954-57), and was founder-conductor of the Beecham Choral Soc; also toured in Europe as an organist, harpsichordist, and clavichordist. He made a special study of the autograph scores versus the printed eds. of the operas of Verdi and Puccini, discovering myriad discrepancies in the latter; proceeded to agitate for published corrected eds. of these works. From 1981 to 1984 he was music director of the State Opera of South Australia.

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire

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