Lorin Maazel is one of today's pre-eminent conductors, appearing regularly at concert and opera houses throughout the world. During the past thirty years, Maestro Maazel has conducted more than one hundred and thirty orchestras in over four thousand opera and concert performances.

He has served as Artistic Director of the Deutsche Oper Berlin and Music Director of the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra (1965-71), Music Director of the Cleveland Orchestra (1972-82), Principle Guest Conductor of the Philharmonia Orchestra of London (1976-1980), General Manager and Artistic Director of the Vienna State Opera (1982-1984), and Music Director of the Orchestre National de France (1988-1990), as well as being the Music Director of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra since 1988. In September 1993, he assumed the position of Music Director of the renowned Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra of Munich.

Maestro Maazel conducted the Vienna Philharmonic in the 1994 New Year's concert, telecast to 65 countries with an estimated 1.2 billion viewers.

He will again conduct the 1996 New Year's concert. The Spring of 1994 included taking London's Philharmonia Orchestra on a tour to Japan as part of a five-year project in which he presents Japanese audiences the fruits of his long collaboration with selected orchestras. He conducted the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra at the Salzburg Festival in 1994 as well as other major European capitals. In addition, he also conducted the final concert of the 100th anniversary season of the Munich Philharmonic in July 1994. Maestro Maazel opened the Salzburg Festival in 1995 and will do the same in 1996, with new productions of "Rosenkavalier" and "Elektra", respectively.

As conductor of opera, Lorin Maazel won acclaim in 1960 when, at the age of thirty, he became the first American and youngest conductor in history to conduct at the Bayreuth Festival. Moreover, he was the first non-German to be invited to conduct Wagner's "Ring" at Bayreuth. His operatic engagements have encompassed new productions at the Metropolitan Opera, Paris Opera, Royal Opera House London, the Vienna State Opera and the Deutsche Oper Berlin. His long association with the Teatro alla Scala Milan has led him to conduct ten new productions, including three season opening premieres. He has also toured Japan and the form Soviet Union with this theater.

Lorin Maazel has given over 20 benefit concerts, many of them telecast worldwide, for internationally active organisations such as UNICEF, the International Red Cross, the UN High Commission of Refugees and the WWF.

His discography encompasses over 300 recordings. The recipient of ten Grand Prix du Disque awards, he is presently completing the recording of all operas by Puccini. He has recorded the complete symphonic works of Beethoven, Mahler, Rachmaninov, Sibelius and Tchaikovsky.

Lorin Maazel has become increasingly involved in television and film production, writing and directing visualizations for television of Holst's "The Planets" and Vivaldi's "The Four Seasons". In recognition for excellence in these fields, he has been awarded the European "Bambi", the Italian "Fantastico", and the French "Sept Jours". His opera films, Mozart's "Don Giovanni" directed by Joseph Losey and Bizet's "Carmen" directed by Francesco Rossi, have broken new ground in the popularization of opera.

Notably among the innumerable decorations, honorary doctorates and awards for achievement with which Lorin Maazel has been honoured are the Legion d'Honneur in France, the Commander's Cross of Merit in Germany and the Commander of the Lion in Finland. He was named an honorary life member of the Israel Philharmonic in 1985 when he conducted their 40th anniversary concert.

Lorin Maazel was born in Paris to American parents in 1930. He studied conducting with Vladimir Bakaleinikoff in Pittsburgh, and, between the ages of nine and fifteen, conducted many of the great American and Canadian orchestras. At the University of Pittsburgh, he studied philosophy and literature, concurrently being a member of the violin section of the Pittsburgh Symphony. Maazel made his European conducting debut in Italy in 1953 while living there on a Fulbright scholarship.

Maazel will continue to serve as Music Director with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra until 2002. He is also taking a year out to dedicate more time to his career as a composer. In 1999 there is planned a premier of a new piece composed by Maazel for the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and Choir.

Today, Lorin Maazel is at the zenith of his career...conductor, composer and violinist - a legend in his time.