{{Short description|South African conductor (1918–2005)}}
'''Leo Quayle''' (11 December 1918 - 19 May 2005) was a South African conductor described as the "South African maestro of music theatre."<ref name= journal>{{cite journal |last1=Hinch |first1=John deCourteille |title=Leo Quayle (1918 - ) - South African maestro of music theatre |journal=South African Journal of Cultural History |date=1 Nov 2004 |volume=18 |issue=2 |url=https://journals.co.za/doi/abs/10.10520/EJC30607 |access-date=12 January 2023}}</ref>
==Early life== Quayle was born in Pretoria where he trained with his father, Leo Quayle snr., and Isadore Epstein.<ref name="history">{{cite book |last1=Grut |first1=Marina |title=The History of Ballet in South Africa |date=1981 |publisher=Human & Rosseau |isbn=0798110899 |page=403}}</ref> He conducted an orchestra for the first time at the age of fourteen, and conducted the Pretoria Juvenile Orchestra in 1934.<ref name=journal></ref> He won the University of South Africa Scholarship for Piano in 1936. He took up this scholarship at the Royal College of Music in 1937, and returned after the end of the Second World War.<ref name="Scotland">{{cite web |title=Leo Quayle |url=http://operascotland.org/person/2219/Leo-Quayle |website=Opera Scotland |access-date=19 December 2022}}</ref> He studied under Herbert Fryer and Constant Lambert at the Royal College of Music where he won the Stier Prize for conducting in 1939, and the Hopkinson Gold Medal in 1946. He spent the Second World War in South Africa as an organiser/director of the Union Defence Force Entertainment Unit.<ref>{{cite web |title=Union Defence Force Entertainment Unit |url=https://esat.sun.ac.za/index.php/Union_Defence_Force_Entertainment_Unit |website=Encyclopaedia of South African Theatre, Film, Media and Performance |access-date=12 January 2023}}</ref>
==Career== During the 1940s and 1950s he was firstly the assistant and later the principal conductor at the Sadler's Wells Opera Company in London as well as one of the first music directors for the Welsh National Opera. He directed television operas, conducted ballet and film music at Denham Film Studios, and conducted various British orchestras including the London Symphony, Bournemouth Symphony and Hallé Orchestras. He was also a part-time professor at the Royal College of Music. He spent 1953 as the Chorus Master at Glyndebourne.<ref name=Scotland></ref> He returned to South Africa to teach music at the Conservatorium of Music at the University of Stellenbosch, and was appointed professor of music at the University of the Orange Free State in 1958.<ref name = history></ref> Seen as "largely responsible for putting Bloemfontein on the musical map," he established both an orchestra and a string quartet in the city.<ref name = journal></ref> In 1961 he was made an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Music, while in 1964 he became the director of Music and Opera for PACT in Johannesburg. He founded the PACT Orchestra in 1965 which accompanies PACT's Opera and PACT Ballet. He composed the music for the ballet ''La Fenêtre'' which was choreographed by Audrey King and performed by PACT Ballet in 1966.<ref name = history></ref> In 1973 he was awarded the Nederburg Prize for Opera.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Alkema |first1=Sjoerd |title=Conductors of the Cape Town Municipal Orchestra, 1914-1965: a historical perspective |url=https://open.uct.ac.za/bitstream/handle/11427/10057/thesis_hum_2012_alkema_s.pdf?sequence=1 |publisher=University of Cape Town |access-date=10 January 2023}}</ref> He was involved in conceptualising and planning the State Theatre in Pretoria which opened in 1981.<ref name=journal></ref> He retired from PACT in 1983, after which he spent two years at Calgary Opera and a season with the Bochumer Symphoniker.<ref name = Scotland></ref>
==Personal life== Quayle met his Durban-born wife Joan in the Entertainment Unit during the Second World War. Joan, a singer under the name Joan Ayling, died in Durban in 1993. They had two sons: Bruce Anthony and Leo.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Smart |first1=Caroline |title=Tribute to Leo Quayle |url=http://www.artsmart.co.za/music/archive/3013.html |access-date=12 January 2023 |publisher=artSMart |date=9 June 2005}}</ref> He died of pneumonia in Durban on 19 May 2005.<ref>{{cite web |title=Leo Quayle |url=https://esat.sun.ac.za/index.php/Leo_Quayle |website=Encyclopaedia of South African Theatre, Film, Media and Performance |access-date=12 January 2023}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Quayle, Leo}} Category:1918 births Category: 2005 deaths Category:20th-century South African classical composers Category:South African conductors (music) Category:20th-century conductors (music) Category:South African composers Category:South African male composers Category:Alumni of the Royal College of Music Category:Fellows of the Royal College of Music