Derek Hudson

Hudson was born on 23 May 1934 in Hove, East Sussex, England, United Kingdom.[1] He was educated at Tonbridge School in Tonbridge, Kent.[1] He spent four years as a pilot in the Royal Air Force, before winning a scholarship to attend the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, where he studied piano, composition, and conducting.[1] He later studied with the conductor Ernest Ansermet in Geneva, Switzerland.[1]

Hudson made his debut with the English Chamber Orchestra at Wigmore Hall in London.[1] In addition to a number of concerts at that orchestra, he also conducted for the London Philharmonic Orchestra and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at the Royal Festival Hall.[1][2] He also worked with Laurence Olivier at the Royal National Theatre.[2] He worked with ballet companies as well, including The Royal Ballet at Covent Garden, London, and the Paul Taylor Dance Company in New York City, United States.[1] Besides the United States and the United Kingdom, he conducted orchestras in over a dozen countries over the course of his career, including France, Austria, the Netherlands, Germany, Russia, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Canada, and South Africa.[1][3]

Hudson left England for Cape Town, South Africa, mostly for health reasons.[2] There, he conducted the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra in the late 1960s and early 1970s.[2][3] He came to Bulawayo, Rhodesia, in 1973 to work as a visiting conductor for the Bulawayo Philharmonic Orchestra.[2][4] He was appointed to the position full-time in 1974.[1] During his tenure, the orchestra expanded its reach, touring cities like Gwelo, Fort Victoria, Salisbury, and Wankie.[4] In 1976, he became Director of the Zimbabwe Academy of Music.[1][2] He played a large role in the founding in 1977 of the National Symphony Orchestra.[1]

In 1980, he appeared with National Symphony Orchestra (and a marimba band) at Zimbabwe's independence celebrations, performing his own composition Prelude: Zimbabwe, as well as Ludwig van Beethoven's Ninth and Tenth symphonies, Edward Elgar's Enigma Variations, and Benjamin Britten's Noye's Fludde.[1][2] Hudson conducted, but also performed as a soloist and accompanist.[1] Being able to perform Beethoven's Ninth Symphony was no easy feat for Hudson and the orchestra, as the tune was used in Rise, O Voices of Rhodesia, the national anthem of the white-ruled Rhodesia.[2] Only after prolonged negotiations with the government was he able to gain permission to perform it, for the first time in independent Zimbabwe's history.[2]

Hudson had a strong influence on musical life in Bulawayo, and was prominent in Zimbabwe as a conductor, lecturer, writer, and broadcaster, even serving for seven years as a member of the board of governors of the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation.[1][5] In 1983, he oversaw the completion of a small concert hall at the Zimbabwe Academy of Music in Bulawayo.[5] In 1997, he initiated the first Bulawayo Music Festival, in which around 150 attendees took a steam train to Victoria Falls, where they witnessed English violinist Tasmin Little perform.[5]

After suffering a heart attack in 2001, he retired from public life.[1] After his wife's death in 2003 and due to his own failing health, he left Zimbabwe and moved to Johannesburg, South Africa, to live with his daughter.[1] There, he died in his sleep on 20 December 2005, after contracting pneumonia.[1][2][5] In his memory, a new audio-visual centre was set up at the Zimbabwe Academy of Music, which was lacking modern equipment.[2] The new centre, along with a bust of Hudson, by local sculptor Gilliam Kaufman, were inaugurated in October 2007 at the Bulawayo Music Festival.[2]

Hudson was married for almost 40 years to his wife Jill, a cellist and music teacher.[1] They had two daughters, Joanna and Kate, and seven grandchildren.[1]

• List of people from Brighton and Hove
• List of Zimbabwean musicians