Eugene Goossens(1893-1962)
- Composer
- Soundtrack
A member of a distinguished musical dynasty, Eugene Goossens studied
first at the Bruges Conservatoire in Belgium, then at the Liverpool
College of Music, England 1904-6. Later he studied at the Royal College
of Music with 'Charles Villiers Stanford' 1907-12. After a brief period as a violinist with
the Queen's Hall Orchestra, Goossens turned to conducting. Having
conducted both orchestral music and opera while assistant to Sir Thomas
Beecham, he went on to conduct the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra,
the Minneapolis Orchestra, and the St Louis Orchestra among others in
the United States. He was conductor with the Cincinatti Symphony
Orchestra 1931-46. In 1947 Goossens accepted the positions of Chief
Conductor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra in Australia and Director of
the New South Wales Conservatorium of Music. Goossens led the campaign
for the construction of the Sydney Opera House, and chose the site at
Bennelong Point where it now stands. Having been made a Chevalier of
the Legion d'Honneur previously, Goossens was knighted in 1955. A
scandal involving the importation of banned materials on his return
from a tour in 1956, however, destroyed his career in Australia. He was
forced to resign from the directorship of the Conservatorium, and he
left Australia for Britain soon afterward. In later years it has been
suggested that this scandal may have been engineered in some way
