Kurt Masur

born 18 Juli 1927 Brieg (Silesia)

Music lessons in piano and cello; studied conducting, piano and composition at the Leipzig Conservatory; subsequently solo tutor and conductor at the Halle State Theatre; 1951-55 first conductor of the Städtische Bühnen Erfurt and the Städtische Theatres Leipzig; 1955-58 conductor of the Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra; in 1958 appointment as general music director; 1958-64 musical management at the Mecklenburg State Theatre in Schwerin and at the Comic Opera in Berlin; 1964-67 guest performances in European countries and Brazil; 1967-72 chief conductor of the Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra; from 1970 conductor of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra; in 1970 German Academy of the Arts; in 1975 appointment as professor; initiated a meeting on 9th Oct. 1989, the day of the first Monday demonstration in Leipzig with the secretaries of the Socialist Unity Party (SED) district headquarters in Leipzig, Kurt Meyer, Jochen Pommert and Roland Witzel, the cabaret artiste Bernd-Lutz Lange and the theologian Peter Zimmermann, the result of which prevented an armed intervention by the state; appointment as chief conductor and musical director of the New York Philharmonic in 1990; numerous guest performances with the Gewandhaus orchestra and guest conductor in Europe, USA and Japan, numerous LP, radio and television recordings; made a Knight of the Honorary Legion in 1990, received the Hans-Martin-Schleyer Prize in 1991; 1994 member of the managing board of the Deutsche Nationalstiftung