Conductor

LENOX - The conductor Michael Tilson Thomas comes by his own theatricality honestly. His grandparents were the legendary actors Boris and Bessie Thomashefsky - both Ukrainian-Jewish immigrants who became central figures in the founding and flourishing of American Yiddish theater around the turn of the 20th century. They were both larger-than-life celebrities and trailblazers of immigrant Jewish culture, and Thomas has been paying tribute to them in recent years with an enjoyable evening-length program that weaves together storytelling with archival materials and musical numbers from the...

A London museum is putting the conductor's baton in visitors' hands, allowing guests to direct a virtual orchestra using three-dimensional motion sensors. The "Universe of Sound" installation is an effort by the British capital's Science Museum to dissect how classical music is made, using specially shot footage, immersive sound, and 360 degree projections to give an unusually close-up view of the well-regarded Philharmonia Orchestra. "At the end of the whole installation you become part of the entirety," said David Whelton, the museum's managing director.

LENOX — It is 1947, and we are in Switzerland with Willem Mengelberg, the disgraced conductor of Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw orchestra. When he’s not conducting his phantom musicians (with the aid of scratchy vinyl on a wind-up Victrola) or communing with absent friends, he rails against the “pious Calvinists’’ at home who have exiled him here. Bitterly, he reflects that he has spent his career creating music for a philistine “herd of sheep,’’ then explodes: “Is there a more horrendous human tragedy than that: wasting the sublime on boors?

WASHINGTON - Mort Lindsey, a conductor and bandleader who helped revitalize the sputtering career of singer Judy Garland through a series of popular concerts and later served as the musical director for "The Merv Griffin Show," died May 4 at his home in Malibu, Calif. He was 89. He suffered complications from a broken hip, said his son Steve Lindsey. In a six-decade musical career, Mr. Lindsey arranged songs and directed performances for many of the industry's brightest stars, including Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Barbra Streisand, Elton John, and Garland's daughter Liza...

Reprinted from late editions of yesterday's Globe. Youth and experience shared the stage of Symphony Hall Thursday night as Julian Kuerti made his conducting debut with the Boston Symphony Orchestra on a program that featured the veteran pianist Leon Fleisher performing Beethoven's "Emperor" Concerto. The back stories of both musicians are compelling; the artistic results were more mixed. James Levine appointed Kuerti last year as an assistant conductor of the BSO, a position he had held with Ivan Fischer's Budapest Festival Orchestra.

LENOX-- The eminent Spanish conductor Rafael Fruehbeck de Burgos canceled two concerts at Tanglewood last weekend because of an ear infection that made it inadvisable for him to fly, although he's expected to be in the Berkshires for his scheduled appearance Sunday. This brought an additional opportunity for BSO assistant conductor Ludovic Morlot to step up to the podium, and a debut for Pinchas Steinberg, who in 1963 was a violinist at the Tanglewood Music Center. Steinberg made his successful debut as a conductor in 1974 and has been a prominent figure in...

CAMBRIDGE -- Allen Lannom's 53 seasons as conductor of the Masterworks Chorale came to a close Saturday night with roaring ovations, trumpet fanfares, floral deliveries, and affectionate and respectful speeches. Tributes from Senator John Kerry and President Bush had been arranged, and their letters were read. But Lannom put first things first. The evening began with a radiant performance of Brahms's "German Requiem," led with affection, insight, and unparalleled experience by the conductor, still vigorous at 88. The Chorale sang with poised tone, balance, and strong emotion, and the...

The unraveling of the largest fare-evasion case in MBTA history began with conductor John Slyman and a single discolored pass on the Providence commuter rail line. The fading was a red herring; the monthly pass was real, but had been run through the wash. But the nervous customer's shifting stories in response to Slyman's questions suggested that something was awry, so he called for Transit Police and the commuter rail trainmaster to meet him at South Station. That March 11 discovery prompted an investigation that uncovered what authorities say is an extensive ring to manufacture and...

The New England Conservatory and world-renowned conductor Benjamin Zander have parted ways following the discovery by school officials that Zander knowingly hired a registered sex offender to videotape performances by the school’s Youth Philharmonic Orchestra during concerts, rehearsals, and classes over the past decade, and perhaps longer. In letters e-mailed yesterday to 6,500 parents of current and former prep school students, conservatory officials said they have never received a complaint about the behavior of the videographer, Peter E. Benjamin, but...

Citing health reasons, conductor Kurt Masur has canceled his appearance with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Tanglewood Festival Chorus in three performances of Beethoven's monumental "Missa Solemnis," starting tonight. Details about the maestro's condition were not available. Masur will be replaced in all of the Boston concerts by TFC conductor John Oliver. Masur has also withdrawn from the BSO's Carnegie Hall performance of the work scheduled for March 6. His replacement for the New York Concert has not yet been announced.

BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Bernard Haitink, conductor At: Symphony Hall, Thursday night (repeats Friday and Saturday) August is coming early this year for the Boston Symphony Orchestra, or at least the end-of-summer musical rituals. I mean of course Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, which has an honored place on the BSO's yearly schedule, traditionally performed on the final program of the Tanglewood season. This week, BSO conductor emeritus Bernard Haitink has also chosen the work to end the subscription season in Symphony Hall.

NEW YORK - Hugo Fiorato, a former child prodigy who became the conductor of the New York City Ballet and one of its most enduring influences, died Monday in Boston. He was 97. His death was confirmed by his stepson Jonathan Scott. Mr. Fiorato, who was with the City Ballet for 56 years, was a figure of continuity surpassed only by George Balanchine, who founded it in 1948 with Mr. Fiorato's mentor, conductor Leon Barzin. Mr. Fiorato held almost every job the company had to offer, starting as its first concertmaster in 1948.

After a concert last Friday, the Boston Symphony Orchestra gave a reception for Joseph Hearne, who is in his 50th season as a member of the orchestra's double bass section. Among those in attendance was Bernard Haitink, the BSO's revered conductor laureate, who is in the middle of a three-week engagement at Symphony Hall that closes the orchestra's 2011-12 regular season. "Just imagine — 50 years, and still liking your job," said Haitink the next day during a conversation in his Boston hotel suite.

With Beethoven's music so ubiquitous in Symphony Hall, you could be forgiven for not noticing, but the Boston Symphony Orchestra is in fact winding down its 2011-12 season with essentially one-half of a complete Beethoven symphony cycle. Leonidas Kavakos's Fourth Symphony started off this half-cycle at the end of March, putting on view the enthusiasms of a young conductor still finding his footing. Yet batting cleanup during these final weeks - with the First, Sixth, and Ninth Symphonies - is Bernard Haitink, in whom the classical style resides with a fluency and ease...

The Austrian pianist Till Fellner had planned to spend all of 2012 on sabbatical, forgoing public performance altogether in order to devote himself to pursuits musical and nonmusical. Yet when an invitation to perform with Bernard Haitink and the Boston Symphony was extended, "I decided to make an exception," says Fellner from his home in Vienna. They will collaborate next week in Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 22 in E-flat, K.482, renowned among the composer's concertos for its colorful wind writing.

A familiar slate of guest conductors will anchor the Boston Symphony Orchestra's 2012-13 season, and Itzhak Perlman will open the season as both conductor and soloist in an all-Beethoven program on Sept. 22. These and other details of the 2012-13 season were announced today. Much of the orchestra's current 2011-12 season was already planned before music director James Levine's resignation last year, making 2012-13 the first season to be programmed from scratch without a music director.

Paavo Berglund, one of Finland's most prominent conductors, has died at age 82. Elina Siltanen, the general manager of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra said Berglund died at home in Helsinki on Wednesday after a long illness. She could not give the cause of death. Berglund, internationally known for numerous recordings of works of Finnish composer Jean Sibelius, was principal conductor of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra in 1972-1979 and principal guest conductor with the Scottish National Orchestra in 1981-1985.

RE "SOME at conservatory may protest Zander's ouster" (Metro, Feb. 11): The sentiment of some New England Conservatory students who claim that the Youth Philharmonic Orchestra's music "is not truly music" without Benjamin Zander at the helm is symptomatic of a far greater problem in the Boston classical music community. Orchestras and conservatories have a history of placing greater value on the prestige and accolades of the conductor than on the sound and caliber of the ensemble.

It turns out that the Discovery Ensemble and conductor Courtney Lewis can go too far after all. The group has made a dynamic approach one of its calling cards, players and conductor immersing themselves into everything they play — usually without crossing the line between intense and overbearing. But their Friday concert, to borrow an analogy from another arena, started off with more wild throwing than controlled pitching. Ludwig van Beethoven's "Leonore" Overture No. 2 — the first, and most temerarious, of the three tries at a "Fidelio" curtain-raiser — found Lewis almost...

PICK OF THE DAY Carrying on Irish fiddle wizard Martin Hayes's music festival in the West County Cork town of Bantry presents some of Ireland's most accomplished musicians. Masters of Tradition features Hayes, guitarist Dennis Cahill, and five other top traditional Celtic players on vocals, accordion, and uilleann pipes. April 14, 8 p.m. $30. Somerville Theatre, 55 Davis Sq., Somerville. 617-876-4275, www.worldmusic.org FRIDAY Springy notes Young but able conductor Courtney Lewis and the Discovery Ensemble celebrate spring with cellist Kacy Clopton in Finnish composer Esa-Pekka...