Donald Johanos

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Donald Johanos (1963)

Donald George Johanos (born February 10, 1928 in Cedar Rapids , Iowa , † May 29, 2007 in Naples , Florida ) was an American violinist and conductor . He was music director of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and the Honolulu Symphony Orchestra .

Life

Johanos was born the son of a Greek railroad worker; his mother had Swedish roots. He received violin lessons, conducted the school orchestra and attended the Interlochen Center for the Arts in Michigan that summer . After high school, he studied violin and conducting at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York. For five years he was a violinist with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra and also received conducting lessons from music director Erich Leinsdorf . He then conducted orchestras for the first time in Altoona and Johnstown, Pennsylvania.

With the support of the Rockefeller Foundation and the American Symphony Orchestra League , he continued his education in Europe from 1955; he worked u. a. with the conductors Eugene Ormandy , Sir Thomas Beecham , Otto Klemperer and Herbert von Karajan . Eventually he won the Dutch Radio Conducting Competition ; he conducted the Concertgebouw Orchestra . During the summer he then appeared twice with the Radio Filharmonisch Orkest .

In 1957 he became a permanent conductor with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra . From 1962 to 1970 he followed Georg Solti as music director. With the orchestra in Texas he recorded works by the composers Charles Ives , Aaron Copland , Sergei Rachmaninow and Alexander Scriabin . He also performed with the orchestra for the first time at Carnegie Hall in New York. In 1968 he brought Paul Freeman, the first African-American conductor to Dallas, who became his deputy.

He was then deputy conductor under William Steinberg at the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra in Pennsylvania and directed its chamber orchestra. A project took him with some musicians to the local Allegheny County Jail , where they performed in front of 450 prisoners.

After having made a guest appearance with the Honolulu Symphony Orchestra in December 1978 , he was the orchestra's music director from 1979 to 1995 as the successor to Robert La Marchina . He also served as the Artistic Director of the Hawaii Opera Theater . He used the classical, the romantic and the modern repertoire. His contemporary programming was recognized in 1991 by the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers .

He was third married and the father of five children.

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personal data
SURNAME Johanos, Donald
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Johanos, Donald George (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American conductor
DATE OF BIRTH February 10, 1928
PLACE OF BIRTH Cedar Rapids , Iowa
DATE OF DEATH May 29, 2007
Place of death Naples , Florida