Kurt Masur

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Kurt Masur
Masur conducting the Dresdner Philharmonie (Dresden) in 2012
Born	(1927-07-18)18 July 1927 Brieg, Lower Silesia, Germany
Died	19 December 2015(2015-12-19) (aged 88) Greenwich, Connecticut, U.S.
Burial place	Südfriedhof (Leipzig), Germany
Alma mater	University of Music and Theatre Leipzig
Occupation	Conductor
Years active	1955–2014
Organizations	Dresden Philharmonic Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra New York Philharmonic London Philharmonic Orchestra Orchestre National de France
Style	Classical music
Spouses	Brigitte Stütze ​ (div. 1966)​ Irmgard Elsa Kaul ​ (died 1972)​ Tomoko Sakurai ​ (m. 1975)​
Children	5

Kurt Masur (18 July 1927 – 19 December 2015) was a German conductor. Called "one of the last old-style maestros",^[1] he directed many of the principal orchestras of his era. He had a long career as the Kapellmeister of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, and also served as music director of the New York Philharmonic for about ten years. He made many recordings of classical music with major orchestras. Masur is also remembered for his actions to support peaceful demonstrations against the East German government in the 1989 demonstrations in Leipzig; those protests were part of the events leading up to the fall of the Berlin wall.