GEORGE SZELL (Budapest 7.06.1897 – Cleveland 30.07.1970)

American conductor of Hungarian origin. Trained in Vienna, he studied theory with Mandyczewski, composition with J.B. Förster and Reger, and piano with R. Robert. He made his debut as a pianist, playing his own works at the age of eleven. He made his conducting debut at the age of sixteen in Bad Kissingen, conducting the Vienna Symphony Orchestra. After making his debut at the Berlin Philharmonic as a composer, pianist and conductor, Szell was hired by Richard Strauss and invited to join the management of the Berlin State Opera in 1915 to work on the production of opera performances. In 1921 he took over the direction of the Darmstadt Opera and in 1922 the Düsseldorf Opera, before returning to Berlin where he remained from 1924 to 1929. There he taught at the Hochschule für Musik (1927-1930). He was then appointed ‘Generalmusikdirektor’ for the German opera and Philharmonic seasons in Prague, where he remained from 1929 to 1937. When Czechoslovakia was annexed by Germany, he went to the United Kingdom, where he was director of the Scottish Orchestra in Glasgow (1937-1939). In 1939 he moved to the United States, signing on for numerous performances at the Metropolitan between 1942 and 1946, making his debut in 1941 at the NBC at the invitation of Toscanini. In 1946 he was appointed Music Director of the Cleveland Orchestra, which under his intelligent, patient, highly musical leadership became one of the most important ensembles in the United States, especially in terms of contemporary production. As leader of such an ensemble, Szell toured extensively in the United States and Canada, in Europe in 1957 and 1967 and in the Far East shortly before his death.