Fritz Reiner, one of the world’s greatest orchestra conductors, died here of pneumonia this weekend. The Budapest-born. Jewish maestro was 74.
He received his early formal training in music in Hungary, and came to the United States in 1922. In 1928, he became an American citizen. He joined the Metropolitan Opera in 1948, and stayed for five years. In 1953 he took on the foundering Chicago Symphony, and molded it one of America’s finest orchestras. He retired as conductor of the Chicago Symphony last April. He had been a guest conductor with most major orchestras in the United States.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
