Lorin Maazel

Lorin Maazel is one of today’s pre-eminent conductors, appearing regularly at concert and opera houses throughout the world. During the past thirty years, Maestro Maazel has conducted more than one hundred and thirty orchestras in over four thousand opera and concert performances. He was born in Paris to American parents in 1930. He studied conducting with Vladimir Bakaleinikoff in Pittsburgh, and, between the ages of nine and fifteen, conducted many of the great American and Canadian orchestras. At the University of Pittsburgh, he studied philosophy and literature, concurrently being a member of the violin section of the Pittsburgh Symphony. Maazel made his European conducting debut in Italy in 1953 while living there on a Fulbright scholarship.

He has served as Artistic Director of the Deutsche Oper Berlin and Music Director of the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra (1965–1971), Music Director of the Cleveland Orchestra (1972–1982), Principle Guest Conductor of the Philharmonia Orchestra of London (1976–1980), General Manager and Artistic Director of the Vienna State Opera (1982–1984), and Music Director of the Orchestre National de France (1988–1990), as well as being the Music Director of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra since 1988. In September 1993, he assumed the position of Music Director of the renowned Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra of Munich.

As conductor of opera, Lorin Maazel won acclaim in 1960 when, at the age of thirty, he became the first American and youngest conductor in history to conduct at the Bayreuth Festival. Moreover, he was the first non-German to be invited to conduct Wagner’s ‘Ring’ at Bayreuth. His operatic engagements have encompassed new productions at the Metropolitan Opera, Paris Opera, Royal Opera House London, the Vienna State Opera and the Deutsche Oper Berlin. His long association with the La Scala Theatre has led him to conduct ten new productions, including three season opening premieres. He has also toured Japan and the former Soviet Union with this theater.

Lorin Maazel has given over 20 benefit concerts, many of them telecast worldwide, for internationally active organisations such as UNICEF, the International Red Cross, the UN High Commission of Refugees and the WWF. His discography encompasses over 300 recordings. The recipient of ten Grand Prix du Disque awards, he is presently completing the recording of all operas by Puccini. He has recorded the complete symphonic works of Beethoven, Mahler, Rachmaninov, Sibelius and Tchaikovsky.

Notably among the innumerable decorations, honorary doctorates and awards for achievement with which Lorin Maazel has been honoured are the Legion d’Honneur in France, the Commander’s Cross of Merit in Germany and the Commander of the Lion in Finland. He was named an honorary life member of the Israel Philharmonic in 1985 when he conducted their 40th anniversary concert.