London - British conductor Richard Hickox has died from a suspected heart attack at the age of 60, his publicist said Monday.

Hickox, who was also musical director of Opera Australia, collapsed during a recording session Sunday in Wales.

The conductor, best known for his works on Vaughan Williams, was married to mezzo-soprano Pamela Helen Stephen, with whom he has three children.

Hickox was appoint musical director of Opera Australia in 2005 and recently had his contract extended to 2012.

In addition to his long attachment to leading opera houses and orchestras in Britain, Hickox conducted many of the leading orchestras in Europe, Japan and North America.

They included performances with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Leipzig Gewandhaus, Orchestre de Paris, New York Philharmonic, and Philadelphia Orchestra.

He was music director at the Spoleto Festival in Italy for five years.

"The shock of Richard Hickox's sudden and unexpected death will resonate right around the globe and has robbed the music world of one of its most popular and respected musicians," Stephen Lumsden, Hickox's agent for more than 20 years, said. (dpa)