Dimitri Mitropoulos

Dimitri Mitropoulos (Greek Δημήτρης Μητρόπουλος; * 18 Februarjul / March 1 1896greg in Athens, .. † November 2, 1960 in Milan, Italy) was a Greek conductor, composer and pianist.

Mitropoulos was born in Athens and studied at the Athens Conservatory and in Brussels and Berlin music, including among Ferruccio Busoni. From 1921 to 1925 he was assistant to Erich Kleiber at the Berlin State Opera Unter den Linden. Subsequently, he held various positions in Greece. In 1930, he played at a concert with the Berlin Philharmonic, the solo part of the 3rd piano concerto by Sergei Prokofiev and headed there the orchestra from the piano. He thus became the first modern musician who occupied this dual function.

Mitropoulos made ​​his debut in 1936 in the U.S. with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. He settled in the subsequent period in the country and became an American citizen in 1946. From 1937 to 1949 he was chief conductor of the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra. He then worked with the New York Philharmonic, whose sole music director he was in 1951 as the successor of Bruno Walter. 1957 Mitropoulos was replaced in that position in disputed circumstances by Leonard Bernstein. From 1954 to 1960 Mitropoulos conducted regularly as a guest at the Metropolitan Opera. He introduced a variety of new works and conducted inter alia, the world premiere of Samuel Barber's opera Vanessa, at the instrumentation he had participated.

He died in Milan at the age of 64 years during a rehearsal of Mahler's Symphony No. 3.

Mitropoulos was a renowned interpreter of the works of Gustav Mahler and American music and an advocate of contemporary music, about the Second Viennese School. His last appearance at the Salzburg Festival in 1960 was dedicated with the Vienna Philharmonic Mahler's 8th Symphony.

He composed a number of orchestral works, solo works for piano, organ and arrangements of works by Johann Sebastian Bach for orchestra.