Mácal, Zdeněk

Zdeněk Mácal (Czech: [ˈzdɛɲɛk ˈmaːtsal]; 8 January 1936 – 25 October 2023) was a Czech conductor who worked internationally. The promising conductor who had won international competitions left his home country of Czechoslovakia in 1968 when the Warsaw Pact ended the Prague Spring, to return only after communism ended there. He was chief conductor of the WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne from 1970, the NDR Orchestra of Hanover, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra in 1986, then the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra until 1995, the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra from 1993, and finally the Czech Philharmonic from 2003 to 2007. He conducted all major orchestras of the world and was prolific in recording. One focus of his broad repertoire was Czech music, including contemporary music.