Francis Travis, American-born Swiss orchestral conductor, Died at 95

  Music

Francis Travis was born on July 9, 1921, in Detroit, Michigan and died on April 28, 2017.

He was an American-born Swiss orchestral conductor.

Travis’s advanced musical studies were at the University of Zurich, with a Ph.D. in musicology after writing a dissertation on Giuseppe Verdi. He was a pupil of Hermann Scherchen, later his assistant.

Travis was opera director in Basel for two years, then Trier, Germany, for two years and was regular guest conductor at the Dutch National Opera in Amsterdam.

Travis’s discography includes works by Joachim Raff, Heinz Holliger with whom he collaborated, and Berlioz and Ravel.

Travis also premiered Swiss and Swedish music.

Later on he lived in Munich where he died.

Francis Travis passed away at 95 years old.