Renowned conductor Lorin Maazel dies at 84

PanARMENIAN.Net - Renowned conductor Lorin Maazel died from complications of pneumonia at his home in Virginia on Sunday, July 13 his family said. He was 84, accoridng to CNN.

Maazel conducted more than 150 orchestras in at least 5,000 opera and concert performances during his career, beginning when he was just 8, according to his official biography.

Maazel remained active as a conductor in his last year, leading 111 concerts from Oman to Munich, Germany, in 2013, the bio said. He announced last month that his health had forced him to cut back on his public engagements.

He was music director of the New York Philharmonic when he took it to North Korea to perform a concert broadcast on North Korean state television in 2008.

He also served as artistic director of the Deutsche Oper Berlin, general manager of the Vienna State Opera, music director of the Radio Symphony of Berlin, the Symphony Orchestra of the Bavarian Radio, the Pittsburgh Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra and the Munich Philharmonic.

Maazel conducted most of the major American orchestras, including the NBC Symphony at the invitation of Arturo Toscanini, from the ages of 9 and 15.

His more than 300 recordings include "symphonic cycles of complete orchestral works by Beethoven, Brahms, Debussy, Mahler, Schubert, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, and Richard Strauss, winning 10 Grands Prix du Disques," his bio said.