Bruno Walter
Bruno Walter (born Bruno Schlesinger, September 15, 1876 – February 17, 1962) was a German-born conductor, pianist, and composer. He was born in Berlin and left Nazi Germany in 1933. He became a French citizen in 1938 and moved to the United States in 1939.
Carlos Kleiber
Carlos Kleiber was born on July 3, 1930, and died on July 13, 2004. He was a German-born Austrian conductor who is considered one of the greatest conductors in history. His father, Erich Kleiber, was also a conductor.
Claudio Abbado
Claudio Abbado OMRI (Italian pronunciation: [ˈklaudjo abˈbaːdo]; 26 June 1933 – 20 January 2014) was an Italian conductor who was one of the most important conductors of his time. He held positions such as music director of the La Scala opera house in Milan, principal conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic, principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra, principal guest conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, music director of the Vienna State Opera, founder and director of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra, founder and director of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, founding artistic director of the Orchestra Mozart, and music director of the European Union Youth Orchestra. He received the Ernst von Siemens Music Prize and was named Senator for life in Italy.
Georg Solti
Sir Georg Solti KBE (born György Stern; October 21, 1912 – September 5, 1997) was a Hungarian-British conductor known for leading orchestras and opera companies in Munich, Frankfurt, and London. He also served as the long-time music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Born in Budapest, he studied music there with Béla Bartók, Leó Weiner, and Ernő Dohnányi.
Herbert von Karajan
Herbert von Karajan was an Austrian conductor born on April 5, 1908, and died on July 16, 1989. He was the main conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic for 34 years. During the Nazi era, he made his first appearance at the Salzburg Festival with the Vienna Philharmonic and the Berlin Philharmonic.
Wilhelm Furtwängler
Gustav Heinrich Ernst Martin Wilhelm Furtwängler (UK: /ˈfʊər t vɛŋɡ lər/, US: /-vɛŋ lər/; German: [ˈvɪlhɛlm ˈfʊɐ̯tvɛŋlɐ]; 25 January 1886 – 30 November 1954) was a German conductor and composer. He is considered one of the best conductors of symphonies and operas in the 20th century. Many later conductors were influenced by his work, and his name is often discussed when describing their styles of performance.
Arturo Toscanini
Arturo Toscanini (born March 25, 1867; died January 16, 1957) was an Italian conductor. He was one of the most highly praised and influential musicians of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He was known for his intensity, perfectionism, attention to the details of how the orchestra sounds, and his ability to remember music perfectly.
Lalo Schifrin
Boris Claudio “Lalo” Schifrin (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈlalo ˈʃifɾin]; June 21, 1932 – June 26, 2025) was an Argentine and American pianist, composer, arranger, and conductor. He first became famous as a jazz composer and is best known for his many film and television scores, which combined jazz and Latin American music with traditional orchestral music. Schifrin’s most famous compositions include the themes from Mission: Impossible (1966) and Mannix (1967), as well as the scores for Cool Hand Luke (1967), Bullitt (1968), THX 1138 (1971), Enter the Dragon (1973), The Four Musketeers (1974), Voyage of the Damned (1976), The Eagle Has Landed (1976), The Amityville Horror (1979), and the Rush Hour trilogy (1998–2007).
Alex North
Alex North (born Isadore Soifer; December 4, 1910 – September 8, 1991) was an American composer most famous for creating music for many films. His notable works include A Streetcar Named Desire (one of the first films with a jazz-based score), Viva Zapata!, Spartacus, Cleopatra, and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. He received fifteen Academy Award nominations for his compositions but did not win any.
Franz Waxman
Franz Waxman (born Wachsmann; December 24, 1906 – February 24, 1967) was a German-born composer and conductor who was Jewish. He is best known for his work in film music. His film scores include Bride of Frankenstein, Rebecca, Sunset Boulevard, A Place in the Sun, Stalag 17, Rear Window, Peyton Place, The Nun’s Story, and Taras Bulba.