Zdeněk Mácal

Zdeněk Mácal (; 8 January 1936 – 25 October 2023) was a Czech conductor who worked internationally. The promising conductor who had won international competitions left his home country of Czechoslovakia in 1968 when the Warsaw Pact ended the Prague Spring, to return only after communism ended there. He was chief conductor of the WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne from 1970, the NDR Orchestra of Hanover, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra in 1986, then the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra until 1995, the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra from 1993, and finally the Czech Philharmonic from 2003 to 2007. He conducted all major orchestras of the world and was prolific in recording. One focus of his broad repertoire was Czech music, including contemporary music.

Biography Mácal was born in Brno on 8 January 1936 and began violin lessons with his father at the age of four. He later attended the Brno Conservatory and the Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts, where he graduated in 1960 with top honors. with his wife and daughter.

He was invited to conduct the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra where Rafael Kubelík was chief conductor, who asked the younger colleague to conduct contemporary music including the world premiere of the Eighth Symphony by Jan Kapr. He made his successful London debut at the Royal Festival Hall in February 1969 with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra as a late replacement for Constantin Silvestri. He served as artistic advisor of the San Antonio Symphony and principal conductor of Chicago's Grant Park Music Festival.

Mácal became music director of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra in 1986. He took that orchestra on an East Coast tour in 1989, which included performances at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. and Carnegie Hall in New York City. He conducted new music by Roberto Sierra for three years of him as composer in residence. The orchestra played many symphonies and tone poems by Antonín Dvořák during his tenure. In 1995, he made Dolby Surround recordings of Reinhold Glière's Second Symphony in C minor and the suite from his ballet The Red Poppy.

After the end of the communist regime in his home country, he was able to return there. In 2003, Mácal was appointed chief conductor of the Czech Philharmonic.

In 2006, Mácal made a brief appearance in the Japanese drama series Nodame Cantabile, based on the manga by Tomoko Ninomiya. He played the main character's childhood mentor, conductor Sebastiano Vieira.

Mácal died in a Prague hospital on 25 October 2023, at age 87.