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10-13 Mahler:Layout 1 10/3/11 11:38 AM Page 40
The Artists
Lorin Maazel served as Music Director of
the New York Philharmonic from 2002 to
2009. In the 2010–11 season he completed
his fifth and final year as the inaugural music
director of the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia
opera house in Valencia, Spain, and at the
start of the 2012–13 season he will become
music director of the Munich Philharmonic.
Mr. Maazel is also the founder and artistic director
of the Castleton Festival, based on his
farm property in Virginia, which was launched
to great acclaim in 2009. The festival is expanding
its activities nationally and internationally
in 2011 and beyond.
Mr. Maazel is also a composer, with a
wide-ranging catalogue of works written primarily
over the last dozen years. His first
opera, 1984, based on George Orwell’s literary
masterpiece, had its world premiere at
the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in
May 2005, and was revived at Milan’s Teatro
40 New York Philharmonic
alla Scala in May 2008. A Decca DVD of the
original London production was released in
May 2008.
A second-generation American born in
Paris, France, Lorin Maazel began violin lessons
at age five, and conducting lessons at
age seven. He studied with Vladimir Baka -
leinikoff, and appeared publicly for the first
time at age eight. Between ages nine and fifteen
he conducted most of the major American
orchestras, including the NBC Symphony
at the invitation of Arturo Toscanini. In the
course of his decades-long career Mr. Maazel
has conducted more than 150 orchestras in
no fewer than 5,000 opera and concert performances.
He has made more than 300
recordings, including symphonic cycles of
complete orchestral works by Beethoven,
Brahms, Debussy, Mahler, Schubert, Tchai -
kovsky, Rachmaninoff, and Richard Strauss,
winning 10 Grands Prix du Disques.
Lorin Maazel has been music director of
the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra
(1993–2002); music director of the Pittsburgh
Symphony (1988–96); general manager
and chief conductor of the Vienna
Staatsoper (1982–84, the first American to
hold that position); music director of The
Cleveland Orchestra (1972–82); and artistic
director and chief conductor of the Deutsche
Oper Berlin (1965–71). His close association
with the Vienna Philharmonic has included
11 internationally televised New
Year’s Concerts from Vienna.