Kenneth Montgomery, the ‘Maestro’ who struck high note with the Ulster Orchestra

​He did so with flair and considerable musicality while remaining at heart a man of charm and thoughtfulness whose Ulster no-nonsense upbringing was a major part of his character.

He was born in Belfast and educated at RBAI. He had no sporting interests so on Wednesday afternoons the headmaster Victor Peskett allowed him to pursue his love of classical music.

Kenneth once told me: “I was able to attend the rehearsals of the City of Belfast Orchestra and the then principal conductor Maurice Miles was very helpful to me. It was during that period in the 1950s that I learned so much about the classical music repertoire.”

He learned to play the bassoon and the piano, but the only piano he could practice on belonged to his Auntie Lily.

Eventually his parents bought him a “honky-tonk” piano but it was not of good enough quality for the development of his considerable musical talent.

However, his father Thomas came to his rescue and bought him a Steinway piano with the money he had saved from his salary as a charge-hand electrician in Shorts, which he had set aside for a car for himself. The piano cost 220 guineas which was a considerable sum in those days.

This was a turning point in Kenneth’s career, and he never forgot his father’s generosity. “It made a huge difference to my musical development and I still had it in my home in Amsterdam all those years since.”

Kenneth was a chorister in St Anne’s Cathedral in Belfast, and learned much from the disciplinarian music director Captain Charles John Brennan. He also sang in a mixed choir of Protestant and Catholic boys, which was a rare and welcome development across the community divides.He was educated at the Royal College of Music, and later studied with a number of outstanding British and European conductors including Sir Adrian Boult, Sir John Pritchard, Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt and Sergiu Celibidache who in his early days had been closely associated with the the famed Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and other major European ochestras, and was regarded as one of the most celebrated conductors of the 20th century.

Kenneth also made his name in the world of opera and his podium engagements included work with the Glyndebourne Festival Opera, and later as a member of the conducting staff of Sadler’s Wells Opera.

He was also a guest conductor with Glyndebourne Touring Opera, and in 1985 he was appointed as artistic and musical director of Opera Northern Ireland.

Three years earlier he began a long association with the Santa Fe Opera as a regular guest conductor, and was interim music director for the 2007 sSeason and was later named conductor laureate for the 2013 season.

Kenneth had an impressive record as an orchestral conductor, starting as music director of the Bournemouth Sinfonietta in 1973. In 1975 he became principal conductor of the Dutch Radio Symphony Orchestra and held the same post with the orchestra from 1985-89 under its new name – the Netherlands Radio Symphony.

He later became director of the Dutch Radio Choir, and in 1991 he was appointed director of opera studies at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague. He also appeared regularly as guest cConductor with top-rank orchestras in Europe, the USA and Canada, as well as in Mexico and New Zealand.

He was appointed OBE by Queen Elizabeth II in 2010 for services to music in Northern Ireland, and in the same year he was awarded an honorary doctorate from Queen’s University.

However, he felt that one of the most important of all his awards, recognitions and appointments was his tenure as the principal conductor of the Ulster Orchestra. It was in this role that I knew him particularly well, and he was most helpful to me when I was researching material for my book on the Ulster Orchestra.

He told me: “The Ulster Orchestra was always very good, with some excellent musicians, and I always liked them a lot. I spent a great deal of time with the orchestra and I was really pleased to have been appointed as their principal conductor, and I have many memories of those years working with that excellent Orchestra in my native city.”

He also said that he was flattered to be working with “one of my favourite orchestras”.

His contribution was summed up by Patrick McCarthy, the current deputy chief executive and artistic director of the Ulster Orchestra, and also a former player.

“Ken brought a great deal of warmth and humour to rehearsals and performances, along with a deeply learned but lightly held scholarly approach. He conducted some truly memorable concerts with us in Belfast and also at the BBC Proms.”

After one of his last concerts with the Ulster Orchestra I gave him a rare five-star review for a performance of the Saint-Saens Organ Symphony with the distinguished musician Dame Gillian Weir playing the mighty Mulholland Organ in the Ulster Hall, and I believe that this pleased him very much.

One of my abiding memories of Ken was interviewing him after a long day’s rehearsal in the Elmwood Hall in Belfast and I noticed his paper shopping bag with a packet of sandwiches, a soft drink and a copy of the evening Telegraph which he, and no doubt his parents, had read regularly in years gone by.

That was Kenneth Montgomery – a very likeable, down to earth musical maestro who wore his musical achievements and his high international reputation so modestly. He will be sorely missed.

He is survived by his husband and former manager Jan van Dooren, and by his many friends.

Alf McCreary is the author of ‘Unfinished Symphony – The Story of the Ulster Orchestra’, published by the Ulster Orchestra Foundation