Henry Lewis (conductor)

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Henry Lewis (born October 16, 1932 in Los Angeles , California , † January 26, 1996 in New York ) was an African-American conductor .

Life

Henry Lewis and Marilyn Horne, with whom he was married from 1960 to 1979

Henry Jay Lewis was the son of Henry J. Lewis, an automobile dealer and Mary Josephine Lewis, a nurse . He began his musical education at the age of five. He first learned the piano , later the clarinet and several string instruments . As a teenager he played in the parish with amateur ensembles and played in the school orchestra. He attended Dorsey High School in Los Angeles. During his time in junior high school , Lewis decided to pursue a career as a professional musician. This was unusual as there were hardly any colored musicians in the classical music field at the time. Because of his talent as a double bass player, he received a scholarship from the University of Southern California . Lewis left university without a degree.

He began his music career in 1948 as a double bass player with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra . Lewis was the first African-American instrumentalist in an American symphony orchestra. From 1955 to 1956 Lewis was stationed in the United States Armed Forces in Europe , where he first worked as a conductor . He became director of the Stuttgart- based Seventh Army Symphony Orchestra and conducted concerts in Germany and the Netherlands .

In 1957, after his discharge from military service, he returned to the United States and founded the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, with which he toured Europe in 1963. In 1960 Lewis was the guest conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra in a number of non-subscription concerts on an orchestral tour. In February 1961, he stepped in at short notice for the sick conductor Igor Markevitch . He conducted a program that included Symphony No. 4 in D minor, Op. 13 by Antonín Dvořák and arias by Giuseppe Verdi and Ludwig van Beethoven . This concert received positive reviews and marked the musical breakthrough for Lewis. From 1961 to 1965 he was Zubin Mehta's assistant with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra.

From 1968 to 1976 he was musical director of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra in Newark . This made him the first African-American to lead an American symphony orchestra. He built this orchestra into a renowned orchestra that played over 100 concerts per season and was invited to the most important concert halls in the United States. He has engaged international soloists, including Misha Dichter and Itzhak Perlman . Lewis has made guest appearances with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall in New York and the Kennedy Center in Washington .

In 1972 he conducted for the first time at the Metropolitan Opera in New York . He made his debut with La Bohème by Giacomo Puccini . In 1975 he directed the Japan tour of the Metropolitan Opera. During his career, Lewis has conducted almost all of the major American orchestras: the Chicago Symphony Orchestra , the Cleveland Orchestra , the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra .

From 1989 to 1991 he was chief conductor of the Dutch Radio Symphony Orchestra in Hilversum . In 1991 he directed a Carmen Jones production in London .

From 1960 to 1979 Lewis was married to the opera singer Marilyn Horne . He died in 1996 after a heart attack .

Audio documents

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Henry Lewis (Conductor) biography in Bach Cantatas
  2. ^ Seventh Army Symphony Members . List of orchestra members on 7aso.org (English)
  3. ^ Henry Lewis; Symphony Conductor Broke Racial Barriers . In: Los Angeles Times , Jan. 28, 1996; obituary
  4. ^ Henry Lewis, Conductor Who Broke Racial Barriers of US Orchestras, Is Dead at 63 . In: New York Times , January 29, 1966; obituary
  5. ↑ Henry Lewis ( Memento of the original from March 25, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Biography at African American Registry @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.aaregistry.com
personal data
SURNAME Lewis, Henry
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American conductor
DATE OF BIRTH October 16, 1932
PLACE OF BIRTH los Angeles
DATE OF DEATH January 26, 1996
Place of death new York