Conductor Andrew Davis dies at 80, headed Lyric Opera of Chicago and orchestras on 3 continents

Andrew Davis, an acclaimed British conductor who was music director of the Lyric Opera of Chicago and orchestras on three continents, has died. He was 80.

Davis died Saturday at Rusk Institute in Chicago from leukemia, his manager, Jonathan Brill of Opus 3 Artists, said Sunday.

Davis had been managing the disease for between 1 1/2 and 2 years, but it became acute shortly after his 80th birthday on Feb. 2.

Davis was music director of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra from 1975-88 and Britain’s Glyndebourne Festival from 1988-2000; chief conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra from 1989-2000; then music director of the Lyric Opera from 2000-21.

He conducted the National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America in workshops last summer, then at New York’s Carnegie Hall and on tour.