Tate, Jeffrey Philip (1943– )

English conductor. He was appointed chief conductor and artistic director of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra in 1991. He assisted at Covent Garden, London, 1970–77 and under Pierre Boulez at Bayreuth, Germany in 1976 before making a remarkable operatic debut at the New York Metropolitan Opera in 1980 with Alban Berg's expressionist masterpiece Lulu.

Tate was principal conductor of the English Chamber Orchestra in 1985, principal conductor of the Royal Opera House, London 1986–91, and principal guest conductor there since 1991; he has specialized in Mozart symphonies and piano concertos, the latter with his wife Mitsuko Uchida as soloist.

Tate is well known to German opera audiences, having worked with Boulez in Bayreuth 1976–80. In 2000, Tate conducted the premiere of Luigi Nono's provocative and political opera, Intolleranza (1960), at the Cologne Opera House. Originally conceived as a political work that opposed racial discrimination and social injustices, the opera was adapted by Tate and German director Günther Krämer to the context of present-day Germany.