Maurice Abravanel facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Maurice Abravanel
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| Background information | |
| Also known as | Maurice de Abravanel |
| Born | January 6, 1903 Thessaloniki, Rumelia Province, Ottoman Empire |
| Died | September 22, 1993 (aged 90) Salt Lake City, Utah, United States |
| Occupation(s) | Conductor |
| Instruments | Piano |
Maurice Abravanel (born January 6, 1903 – died September 22, 1993) was an American classical music conductor. He is best known for leading the Utah Symphony orchestra for more than 30 years. He helped turn it into a respected professional group.
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Early Life and Musical Beginnings
Maurice Abravanel was born in Salonika, which was part of the Ottoman Empire (now Thessaloniki, Greece). His family was Sephardic Jewish, and they had been forced to leave Spain in 1492. His family settled in Salonika in 1517.
In 1909, when Maurice was six, his family moved to Lausanne, Switzerland. His father was a successful pharmacist. For several years, they lived in the same house as Ernest Ansermet, a famous conductor. Young Maurice played piano with Ansermet. He also started composing music and met famous composers like Darius Milhaud and Igor Stravinsky. Maurice loved music and knew he wanted to be a musician. He became a pianist for a local theater and a music critic for a newspaper.
Maurice's father wanted him to study medicine. He sent Maurice to the University of Zürich. But Maurice was unhappy studying medicine. He told his father he would rather be a musician, even a percussionist in an orchestra, than a doctor. His father finally agreed to let him follow his dream.
Building a Career in Music
In 1922, at age 19, Abravanel moved to Berlin, Germany. Even though times were tough, Berlin had many opera houses. Famous conductors like Wilhelm Furtwängler and Richard Strauss were working there.
Abravanel became a student of the composer Kurt Weill. Weill was only three years older than Maurice, but he taught many students to earn money. Abravanel said Weill wasn't the best teacher, but they became close friends. After a year, Abravanel got a job as an accompanist at an opera house in Neustrelitz. This was a good way to become a conductor. Accompanists help singers practice and sometimes fill in for the main conductor.
In 1924, the theater in Neustrelitz burned down. The orchestra members asked Abravanel to conduct concerts at a castle. He led orchestra concerts twice a week without rehearsals and even got paid.
Moving Up in Opera Houses
In 1925, Abravanel became a choral director in Zwickau. He spent two years there, conducting operettas. Because he did so well, he got a job as a regular conductor at a better theater in Altenburg.
After two years in Altenburg, Abravanel became a conductor at a major opera house in Kassel. In 1931, the director of the Berlin State Opera saw him conduct Verdi's La forza del destino. He invited Abravanel to conduct in Berlin. The orchestra was impressed and applauded him. This was important because the orchestra decided if a guest conductor would be asked back. Abravanel became a regular guest conductor.
Leaving Germany and International Work
Because Adolf Hitler and the Nazis were gaining power, Jewish musicians were forced to leave Germany. Feeling unsafe, Abravanel moved to Paris in 1933, along with his friend Kurt Weill.
In Paris, he worked with Bruno Walter, another famous conductor. Walter suggested Abravanel conduct Mozart's Don Giovanni at the Paris Opera. He also conducted the Orchestre Symphonique de Paris. In Paris, he met George Balanchine, a famous ballet choreographer. Abravanel conducted Balanchine's ballets and the works of Kurt Weill. Weill and Balanchine even created a ballet together called The Seven Deadly Sins, which Abravanel conducted.
Weill later moved to London and then New York. In 1934, Abravanel and his wife moved to Australia. He was offered the chance to direct opera in both Melbourne and Sydney. After a long journey, he was welcomed as an "eminent continental conductor." He conducted seasons in both cities, opening with Verdi's Aida and including works by Puccini, Wagner, and Bizet.
Coming to America and the Utah Symphony
In 1936, Abravanel received an offer from the Metropolitan Opera in New York. At 33, he became the youngest conductor hired by the Met. He was offered a three-year contract. He became a U.S. citizen in 1943. For several years, he conducted on Broadway and tried to promote Kurt Weill's music.
In 1946, the Utah Symphony, a community orchestra, was looking for a conductor. Abravanel applied, wanting to build his own orchestra. He was chosen from 40 applicants and given a one-year contract. He turned down a big offer from Radio City Music Hall to take the Utah job. Sometimes, he even worked without pay when the orchestra faced tough times.
That one-year contract turned into a 32-year career. Abravanel transformed the Utah Symphony from a part-time community group into a respected professional orchestra. They signed recording contracts and released over 100 albums. He worked for years to get a permanent home for the orchestra. His dream came true when Salt Lake's Symphony Hall (now Abravanel Hall) opened in 1979, shortly after he retired.
Abravanel was known for conducting classical music, but he also supported new music. He recorded works by composers like Crawford Gates and Leroy Robertson.
From 1954 to 1980, Abravanel also led the Music Academy of the West in Montecito, California. Young musicians went there for summer music camps. He also taught conducting at Tanglewood.
Honors and Legacy
Maurice Abravanel received many awards for his contributions to music:
- He received a Tony Award in 1950 for conducting the music of Marc Blitzstein's opera, Regina, on Broadway.
- He was part of the first music panel for the US National Endowment for the Arts in 1970.
- He served on the National Council of the Arts from 1970 to 1976.
- The American Symphony Orchestra League gave him its "Golden Baton" award in 1981.
- He was named "Artist in Residence for Life" at the Tanglewood Music Festival in 1981.
- US President George H. W. Bush gave him the National Medal of Arts in 1991.
- He received Grammy Award nominations for many of his recordings with the Utah Symphony.
Abravanel is remembered for his classic recordings with the Utah Symphony. These include works by Berlioz, Arthur Honegger, Erik Satie, Edgar Varèse, and Ralph Vaughan Williams. He also made the first complete recording of Gustav Mahler's nine symphonies by an American orchestra.
Maurice Abravanel died in 1993 in Salt Lake City, Utah, at the age of 90. Salt Lake City renamed its Symphony Hall Abravanel Hall in his honor in 1993.
