Désiré Defauw

Désiré Defauw was born in Ghent in 1885 and died in Gary, Indiana, in 1960. Although Belgian by origin, he developed much of his career in the United States, where he came to hold one of the most prominent conducting posts in the country. His initial training was as a violinist, with Johan Smit, and his first appearances in London date from 1910.

In 1914, forced into exile by the war, he founded the Allied Quartet in London together with Charles Woodhouse, Lionel Tertis and Emile Doehaerd. After returning to Belgium he established himself as the country's leading conductor. He broke with a tradition at the Brussels Conservatoire, as for the first time the institution's concerts were not conducted by its director, and he served there from 1926 to 1940, also teaching conducting from 1926.

In 1938 he conducted the NBC Symphony in New York as a guest conductor, and in 1940 he moved to Montreal to direct the Société des Concerts Symphoniques. In 1943 he was appointed music director of the Chicago Symphony, a post that met with little success and which he left in 1947. He then conducted the Gary Symphony from 1950 to 1958, the year in which he retired due to ill health.

He left recordings with the Brussels Conservatoire orchestra and with the Chicago Symphony, mostly of the standard repertoire. It is said that his recording of Prokofiev's Scythian Suite with the Chicago Symphony was the first recording of the work, a claim that should be treated with caution.