Milan Horvat
Milan Horvat ( born July 28, 1919 in Pakrac, Kingdom of Yugoslavia (now Croatia), † January 1, 2014 in Innsbruck ) was an Austrian conductor of Croatian origin.
Life
Horvat studied with Igor Markevitch and began his career in 1946 as principal conductor of the Radio Symphony Orchestra of Zagreb. In 1953 he takeover the post of Chief Conductor of the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra, Dublin. He was chief conductor, director, principal guest conductor from 1985 and honorary conductor for life of the Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra, with numerous concerts, among others in Salzburg, Venice, Marseille, Geneva, Vienna and Graz and the U.S. and Japan. He was also for ten years chief conductor of the Zagreb Opera House. From 1969 to 1975 Horvat was chief conductor of the newly founded ORF Symphony Orchestra. From 1997 to 2000 he was chief conductor of the Graz Symphony Orchestra.
From 1970, he held several times master classes in Salzburg from ( International Summer Academy Salzburg). 1975 until his retirement in 1989, he led a class for conductor training at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz; his students included, inter alia, Fabio Luisi, Richard Hein, Michele Trentino and Gerhard gift.
Horvat was honorary conductor of the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra and principal guest conductor from 1981 and honorary member of the Slovenian Philharmonic Ljubljana. He worked with famous soloists such as Mstislav Rostropovich, David Oistrakh, Yehudi Menuhin and Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli. Most recently, he has conducted renowned orchestras throughout Europe, among others in Berlin, Rome, Salzburg, Lisbon, Zagreb.
Many of his performances have been released on CD, including Antonín Dvořák's 4th and 8th Symphony with the ORF Symphony Orchestra on the label Excelsior, with the same orchestra also appeared works of Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel on Point Classics and Bella Musica, Sergei Rachmaninoff's 3rd Piano Concerto with David Helfgott as soloists on RCA Victor, as well as several works by Ludwig van Beethoven, Gustav Mahler, Anton Bruckner and Robert Schumann.