Conductor Zdenek Mácal was active internationally as well as in his native Czech Republic. He was especially well regarded in the U.S., where he was the longtime conductor of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. Mácal was born on January 8, 1936, in Brno, in what was then Czechoslovakia. His father was a violinist who gave him his first lessons at the age of four. Mácal attended the Brno Conservatory from 1951 to 1956, moving to Brno's Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts and graduating there in 1960 with highest honors. Mácal landed a post as conductor of the Moravian Philharmonic in 1963, remaining there until 1967 and beginning to build an international reputation despite Cold War-era restrictions. He won the Besançon International Conducting Competition in France in 1965 and the Mitropoulos Competition in New York the following year, and he conducted the prestigious Czech Philharmonic on a European tour. Those experiences stood him in good stead after the Soviet Union invaded Czechoslovakia in 1968; he was able to leave the country and find a post as chief conductor of the WDR Symphony Orchestra in Cologne, West Germany, in 1970. In 1972, Mácal made a guest conducting appearance with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and from then on, work in the U.S. formed a substantial part of his career. He served as music director of the San Antonio Symphony and was highly visible as principal conductor at Chicago's Grant Park Summer Festival. In 1986, he became music director of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, making a recording with that group of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125 ("Choral"), on the audiophile Koss label. He went on to make many more recordings with the group, also conducting the NDR Symphony Orchestra in Hamburg, Germany, and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra in Australia for a time. In 1993, Mácal became music director of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, remaining there until 2002 and leading it in several recordings for the Delos label. In 2003, Mácal returned home and took a position as chief conductor of the Czech Philharmonic, remaining there until 2007 and continuing to record with the group. He also made guest conducting appearances with many major orchestras in the U.S., Europe, and East Asia and was in demand at top European festivals. Mácal's substantial recording catalog includes a series of albums with the Czech Philharmonic on the Exton label. In 2015, he and the Philharmonic moved to the Universal label, backing cellist Anja Thauer in a program of music by Dvořák, Max Reger, and Jean Françaix. Mácal remained active into old age. He died in Prague on October 25, 2023, at the age of 87. ~ James Manheim, Rovi