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1. 

   Ates Orga on March 9, 2023 at 1:09 pm

   Lawrence Renes writes

   Today [6 March] should be a happy day. I am back in Sweden rehearsing with the Swedish Chamber Orchestra, celebrating 20 years of making music together. But this morning I learned that my dear friend Kenneth Montgomery has passed away unexpectedly [Amsterdam, 5 March]. Just three weeks ago I went to see him conduct the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century. It was a brilliant concert. We sat backstage together, chatting and laughing. I cannot believe he is no longer with us.

   When I started studying conducting at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague opera was not part of the curriculum. There was however a very good Opera Studio there, led by Kenneth. I went to him and asked him if I could somehow have lessons with him to learn about conducting opera. His answer was that opera cannot be learned in a classroom, only in practice. The next day he invited me to come to a staging rehearsal and sit next to him. From that moment on he took me under his wing. He slowly built me up, and when I was ready he let me conduct my first opera at the Studio, Rossini’s La Cambiale Di Matrimonio. After that, and while still a student, he took me with him as his assistant to Opera Northern Ireland to experience a professional opera company. I was paid a small fee there, which really helped me. Much later I found out that Kenneth paid that out of his own pocket… And when I accompanied him to Belfast a second time he wasn’t able to conduct the final performance. I still suspect him of having done that on purpose to give me the opportunity to conduct that performance …

   I cannot put into words how much I have learned from him. Not only technical things, but even more so music, history, philosophy and above all love for singing, and singers. He has touched the lives of so many, and he will be so missed. My heart breaks for his husband and lifelong partner of over 41 years Jan van Dooren. There was no Kenneth without Jan, and now Jan must continue without Kenneth. Unimaginable sadness…
   Thank you Kenneth, for everything.

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