At an age when physical activity for most people means a potter round the garden or a gentle game of bowls, 81-year-old conductor Denis Vaughan is still to be found, three or four days a week, sweating through an aerobics class or pushing out reps on the resistance machines at his local gym. Fitness is more than just a personal interest; away from the concert hall, Vaughan is president of the Council for the Advancement of Arts, Recreation and Education (CAARE), a registered charity working to promote what he describes as 'a cultural and sport-rich education for all young people'.
Born in Melbourne in 1926, Vaughan rose to prominence as Sir Thomas Beecham's deputy conducing the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in the 1950s. He then built a reputation for his recordings of Schubert, Mozart and Haydn symphonies, coupled with stints at the Munich Opera House and State Opera of South Australia. In 1985, Vaughan moved to London - and, appalled by the risible levels of funding for cultural and sporting activity in this country and what he considered our 'social barbarism', began devoting his energies to lobbying for the creation of a National Lottery. His aim was to triple funding for the arts and increase sports funding sevenfold - a vision that was realised in 1994.
Of necessity, conducting took a back seat. Only recently has Vaughan found time to relaunch the works of Dvořák as the composer wrote them, and to pick up the baton again. Following a well-received concert in May 2005, he is seeking to relaunch his conducting career as CAARE grows.
Vaughan has written a book on the fundamental influence of music on behaviour, published in Germany in 1992. He suggests some new perspectives, with a view to harnessing the vigour of rock music to a more positive, varied and rejuvenating effect, and increasing the emotional range of young people through music.
Vaughan says of the book, The Effect of Music and Body and Soul, "It shows how all our subtle emotions are only available if they are sparked at a certain time. If you do the opposite of this, such as distortion in the sound, constant regular beats, which have no subtlety to them, all those things are belittling and dumbing-down our emotions. It's very depressing."
Denis Vaughan CV available for download here [.DOC] [.PDF]