Stuart Challender AO 1947-1991

In 1986 Challender was a member of a group of prominent Australian musical identities who travelled throughout Germany as guests of the West German Government’s Foreign Affairs Department. With him were Musica Viva administrator Peter Burch, the Australian Opera’s Moffatt Oxenbould, the Victoria State Opera’s Ken Mackenzie-Forbes and Richard Divall, and tenor David Parker, representing the Canberra School of Music. ‘It was a quietly satisfying return trip for Challender,’ recalled Peter Burch. ‘Much earlier in his career he had worked on the lowest rung of some of the opera houses he now visited as an honoured guest.’

In February 1986 Challender was appointed principal guest conductor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. He breathed new life into what was then a lacklustre assemblage and became its chief conductor in August the following year, succeeding Zdenek Macal. He was also made artistic director; this gave him the freedom to select players, soloists and repertoire, in the tradition of his idols, Walter and Klemperer. At the time the appointment aroused some misgivings: Challender’s reputation had been made in opera, not in the concert hall. ‘I’m having to learn the orchestral repertoire on the run,’ he quipped, ‘but you've got to begin somewhere.’

‘Somewhere’ was a turning point for both Challender and the orchestra. Together they reached new musical heights, especially in their interpretations of Mahler, Bruckner and Shostakovitch. And, of course, Challender continued to champion local composers: Brian Howard, Peter Sculthorpe, Richard Meale, Carl Vine and Richard Mills. Young, ambitious, brilliantly talented and – above all – Australian, Challender was an inspiration to an entire generation of local music makers.

And his achievements were duly noticed abroad. He visited the United States with the Sydney Symphony in 1988, a 12-city tour that culminated with a special concert at the United Nations General Assembly in New York to mark 200 years of white settlement in Australia. Joan Sutherland was a featured soloist. He conducted the Boston Symphony Orchestra in Hong Kong in 1989 and in 1990 conducted the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in four concerts, introducing two Australian classics, Richard Meale’s Very High Kings and Percy Grainger’s The Warriors. Also in 1990 he conducted a sensational concert performance of Berg’s Lulu for the Australian Opera in Sydney.

Early in 1991 he conducted Dvoák’s Rusalka for the English National Opera, but he returned home halfway through his engagement, tired and ill.

In March, suspecting that a Melbourne newspaper was about to ‘out’ him, Challender revealed that he had AIDS. He neither wanted nor expected sympathy. He told the media – and his devoted orchestra – that he hoped to continue conducting ‘until I drop’. ‘I don’t see myself as a martyr to the cause or a crusader,’ he said. ‘If I had multiple sclerosis, one wouldn’t be shy about announcing it to the world. But I suppose it is a good thing that a high-profile public figure has done this.’