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Mitropoulos 1896 - 1960 (64)

The primary purpose of a concert is not perfection in performance but communication.


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Dimitris Mitropoulos (1896-1960) was a famous Greek maestro, composer and pianist. He was born in Athens on February 18, 1896. He studied piano and composition at the Athens Conservatory and graduated excellently in 1919. In 1920 he was awarded a scholarship by the Athens Conservatory in Brussels, where he received composition and organ lessons.

From 1922 to 1924 he worked as a musician at the Berlin State Opera. In 1924 he returned to Athens and assumed the leadership of the Athens Conservatory Symphony Orchestra. He soon gained international fame and began directing major European ensembles such as the Berlin Philharmonic. In 1936 he went to the US to direct the Boston Symphony Orchestra and in 1938 he took over the management of the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra, where he remained until 1949, making it one of the leading US orchestras. In 1949 he moved to the New York Symphony, where he remained until 1957, initially as director and then as artistic director and maestro.

He resumed his European appearances since 1950, after spending 12 years in the US. Since then he divided his time between Europe and America. In the summer of 1955 he had a great pan-European tour with the New York Philharmonic.

Dimitris Mitropoulos, during his 37-year career conducted forty-five (45) orchestras in Europe and America, climbed the podium for more than 2,500 times to conduct symphonic concerts, opera shows and to perform (either directing or playing in music concerts. He was known for his photographic memory as he could direct without a score. In addition to being a great conductor, he was also an important composer. He wrote about 40 works for orchestra, piano and voice, as well as one opera ("Sister Beatrice").

Mitropoulos never married. In 1953 he suffered a slight heart attack and in 1959 a second and much more severe. The doctors advised him to stop working if he wanted to live. He decided to continue his work with the same intensity. He died of a third heart attack on the podium in Milan during a rehearsal on November 2, 1960.