Leonard Salzedo (1921-2000). British musician, composer and conductor

Leonard Salzedo was born in Hackney, London, in 1921. He studied at the Royal College of Music until 1944 and spent the rest of his life as a freelance composer and orchestral musician. From 1947 until 1960 he played with the London Philharmonic and then the Royal Philharmonic Orchestras. In the latter he also served as Thomas Beecham’s assistant conductor.

As a composer Salzedo wrote more than 160 orchestral, chamber, film and ballet scores. For the ballet he wrote 17 pieces and was associated with ballet and dance for much of his life. In 1945 he married Pat Clover, and together they worked for Berto Pasuka’s Ballet Nègres from 1946 to 1947, with Salzedo composing four scores. He also worked closely with Ballet Rambert, first in 1944 with the music for The Fugitive and later with four scores for Norman Morrice. His most successful ballet score was for Jack Carter’s The Witch Boy in 1956, which went on to receive more than 1,000 performances world-wide.

From 1967 to 1972 Salzedo was music director of Ballet Rambert, from 1972 to 1974 he was principal conductor for Scottish Ballet, and from 1982 to 1986 was music director for London City Ballet. Leonard Salzedo died in 2000.