Vincent La Selva
Vincent La Selva (born September 17, 1929 in Cleveland , Ohio , † October 9, 2017 ) was an American conductor and music teacher .
Life
La Selva began playing the trumpet at the age of eight and was already conducting student ensembles at the age of twelve. He later studied conducting with Jean Morel at the Juilliard School of Music . During his subsequent Army service he was the conductor of the First Army Chapel at Fort Jay on Governor's Island.
In 1954 he founded the Xavier Symphony Society , which offered free performances of symphonic works in public concerts in the auditorium of New York's St. Francis Xavier High School , and later also opera performances. The composer was so impressed by his production of Gian Carlo Menotti's The Saint of Bleeker Street that he made it possible for La Selva to perform the work again at the New York City Opera . There, La Selva conducted Tosca , Nabucco , Mefistofele , Cavalleria rusticana , Madama Butterfly , La fanciulla del West , La Bohème , Pagliacci and Menotti's Der Konsul, among others .
He specialized in Italian opera and has been compared to Arturo Toscanini by critics . In 1973 he founded the New York Grand Opera Company , which he led from then on. With this he performed Giuseppe Verdi's complete operas between 1994 and 2001 on the summer stage in New York's Central Park . It has had 300,000 listeners over the years, and the company brought the Grand Opera an entry in the Guinness Book as the first opera company to perform all of Verdi's 28 operas.
Da Silva also made a name for himself as a conductor of symphonic music. He led well-known orchestras in the USA and Europe and worked with musicians such as Leonard Rose , Ruggiero Ricci , Mirella Freni , Licia Albanese , Renata Tebaldi , Zinka Milanov , Rudolf Firkušný , Murray Perahia and Peter Serkin . Since 1969 he has also taught conducting at the Juilliard School.
Individual proof
- ↑ Slipped Disc | Mourning for a New York maestro, 88. Retrieved July 2, 2019 (UK English).
Web links
- New York Grand Opera - Vincent La Selva ( Memento from May 25, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | La Selva, Vincent |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American conductor and music teacher |
| DATE OF BIRTH | September 17, 1929 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Cleveland , Ohio |
| DATE OF DEATH | October 9, 2017 |
| Place of death | Cleveland , Ohio |