Eduardo Mata

Eduardo Mata was a Grammy-nominated conductor from Mexico who directed symphony orchestras in Texas and Arizona and appeared as a guest conductor with major orchestras around the world. He made many recordings of a broad repertoire of classics with the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), Dallas Symphony Orchestra and London Symphony Orchestra and notched up two Grammy Award nominations. Mata learned music as a child, attended Mexico's National Conservatory and studied with Carlos Chávez, Héctor Quintanar and Julián Orbón. A Koussevitzky Memorial Fellowship in 1964 allowed him to study conducting and composing at Tanglewood in Massachusetts. His original works in the 1950s and '60s included symphonies and chamber pieces but in 1965 he was named music department head at UNAM and conductor of the Guadalajara Orchestra. He moved to the United States in 1972 to become principal conductor of the Phoenix Symphony where he then became music director. He held the same position at the Dallas Symphony Orchestra from '77 to '93, served as director of the National Opera of Mexico and appeared as guest conductor with orchestras in other American cities and in London, Berlin, Frankfurt, Rotterdam and the Netherlands. Mata became conductor emeritus at Dallas when he left the orchestra after 16 years and until his untimely death when he was killed in a plane crash at the age of 52. At the time of his death, he also was principal guest conductor of the New Zealand symphony and artistic director of Solistas de Mexico.

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