Yondani Butt (62) passed away on 28/08/2014 in Zhuhai, China.

A memorial service will be held on Monday, 1st September from 9:30 to 11:30 am at: 

珠海殯儀館: 嵩山廳
地址 : 珠海拱北粵海中路2075號 (合羅山墓園對面)
電話 : +86 756 888-5883 / 888-1444. 

Another service will be held on Thursday, September 4 afternoon at: 

世界殯儀舘有限公司 Universal Funeral Parlour Co., Ltd.
紅磡暢行道1010, Cheong Hang Road, Hung Hom
Kowloon, Hong Kong
Tel : 2362 4331

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Yondani Butt was born in Macau. He holds a Ph.D. in chemistry on which subject he has published numerous research papers.  As founder of Symphonie Canadiana, he had led the orchestra on major tours throughout North America. In addition, from 1983, he held the position of Resident Conductor of the Victoria International Festival, creating the highly successful Concerti Extravaganza series, for which he conducted more than 23 concertos in six weeks. Frequently in demand as a guest conductor, Butt has recorded and performed in the US, Canada, Lantin America, Asia and Europe.

Hailed by Rober Marsh of the Chicago Sun Times as "an outstanding talent," he received acclamation from critics and audiences for his many CD recordings and concert performances. Yondani Butt received an MRA Grammophone Award in the symphony category in 1995 for his recording of Glazunov's Sixth Symphony. He had previously won the same Award in l986 for Rimsky-Korsakov's Third Symphony. His recording of Glazunov's Third Symphony is recognized by the Glazunov Society as definitive and earned him the title of Honorary Patron of the Society. His extensive discography features the more exotic pages of the orchestral catalogue with works by Saint-Saens, Elgar, Sibelius, Lalo, Grieg, Kodaly, Mahler, Strauss, Raff, Gliere and LIszt.  His recording of Goldmaark's Rustic Wedding Symphony featured in the Classical Charts and was Gromophone Magazine's Critics’ Choice for 1992. 
 
In the early 2000s, he was inflicted with a severe ailment of the vocal cord. He retired from conducting. But in 2009 he emerged to record, with the London Symphony Orchestra, most of the Austro- German classics that include Beethoven, Brahms, Wagner, and Schumann, as well as some works by Tchaikovsky and a disc of French Classics.
 
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Yondani Butt is a legatee of Austro-German music. He studied conducting with Wolfgang Vacano (1906 -- 1985) and Josef Blatt (1906 -- 1999) at Indiana University. He continued studying music in graduate school at the University of Michigan while pursuing his chemistry degrees to the doctorate level.
 
Vacano and Blatt were both born in the year of l906. Vacano was born in Cologne, moved to Berlin as a child, and studied at the Staatliche Hochshule fur Musik.  Blatt was born in Vienna and studied piano with the great Leschetizky at the age of four. He later attended the Staatliche Academy des Musik and studied conducting with the legendary Clemejns Krauss who was the music director of the Vienna Philharmonic as well as the Vienna Opera. Krauss was greatly influenced by Arthur Nikish and was a close friend of Richard Strauss. Butt has inherited a vast repertoire from Krauss which include Wagner, Strauss and Mahler besides the Classics.
 
Both Vacano and Blatt emigrated to America to escape Nazism and both started to teach and nurture orchestras and school opera houses, with Blatt in Michigan in l950 and Vacana in Indiana in l951. Both men knew the operatic and symphonic literatures in depth and by heart.
 
Vacano had taught some students conducting at Indiana and Aspen, but Blatt rarely took on students. Butt was recommended to Blatt by Walter Robert, himself Blatt’s fellow-student and a famous piano pedagogue at the Staatliche Academy des Musik.  Butt inherited Blatt’s style and the vision of the Austro-German school.
 
Butt is also a composer. He studied free counterpoint and composition with Bernard Heiden (1910-2000). Heiden was born in Frankfurt-am-Main and was a student of Paul Hindemith’s. In Indiana, Butt studied piano with Sidney Foster, a protégé of Isabelle Vergarova and David Saperton at Curtis. In Michigan, he studied ensemble with Eugene Mossart and piano with Karen Keys who was a student of Alfred Cortot.
 

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