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Maazel, Lorin Varencove (6th March 1930-13th July 2014)

He was a violinist, composer and conductor born in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France, to American parents.  He was brought up in the United States and regarded as a prodigy.  He took his first conducting lessons when he was seven years old, debuted at eight and toured America conducting major orchestras when he was twelve.

He studied at the University of Pittsburgh before becoming the first American conductor at Bayreuth in 1960. From 1965 to 1975 he conducted the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra and he succeeded George Szell at the Cleveland Orchestra.  After leaving Cleveland he took posts conducting the Vienna State Opera, as a music consultant to the Piitsburgh Symphony Orchestra, and as chief conductor to the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra.

He was a guest conductor at the New York Philharmonic in 2000 and following his appearance with them he was asked to succeed Kurt Masur in 2002.  He will retained the post until 2009 as well as being the music director of the Arturo Toscanini Philharmonic.  During 2006 he conducted the new opera house orchestra in Valencia and toured Asia conducting orchestras that included the Singapore Symphony Orchestra.

Throughout his career he led over 150 orchestras in over 500 opera and concert performances and racked up more than 300 recordings.  He was the Music director on the Grammy Award winning On the Transmigration of Souls by John Adams and won 10 Grand Prix du Disque awards.

His compositions include the opera 1984 based on George Orwell’s novel, The Empty Pot and music for various instruments and orchestra.

John Coolidge Adams
Nonesuch 79816 (CD: On The Transmigration of Souls)
New York Philharmonic

Sources:

  1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorin_Maazel
  2. http://nyphil.org/meet/maestro/index.cfm?page=profile