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Pierre Monteux (1875–1964) was a French (later American) conductor, who directed orchestras around the world for more than half a century. After violin and viola studies, and a decade as an orchestral player and occasional conductor, he began to receive regular conducting engagements in 1907. He came to prominence when he conducted the world premieres of ballets such as The Rite of Spring, Daphnis et Chloé, and Jeux. From 1917 to 1919 he was the principal conductor of the French repertoire at the Metropolitan Opera. He then led the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Concertgebouw Orchestra (1924–34), Orchestre Symphonique de Paris (1929–38), San Francisco Symphony (1936–52), and from 1961, aged eighty-six, the London Symphony Orchestra. Monteux's chief love was the music of German composers, above all Brahms. He disliked recording, finding it incompatible with spontaneity, but made a substantial number of records. He began to teach conducting in Paris in 1932. After moving permanently to the US in 1942, he founded the Pierre Monteux School in Hancock, Maine, which has continued. His students included Igor Markevitch, Neville Marriner, André Previn, Lorin Maazel and Seiji Ozawa. (Full article...)
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