Laszlo Halasz (conductor)

Laszlo Halasz (6 June 1905 in Debrecen – 26 October 2001 in Port Washington, New York) was an American opera director, conductor, and pianist of Hungarian birth. He studied with Béla Bartók, Zoltan Kodály, Ernö Dohnányi and Leó Weiner at the Budapest Music Academy.^[1]

In 1943 he was appointed the first director of the New York City Opera, a position he held through 1951. He later served on music faculties of the Peabody Conservatory of Music and the Eastman School of Music as part of their conducting and opera departments.^[2] He was married to the cellist Suzette Forgues Halasz for more than 50 years.

Sources

^ Still, William Grant; Still, Judith Anne; Headlee-Huffman, Lisa M. (2006). Just Tell the Story: Troubled Island : a Collection of Documents Previously Published and Unpublished, Pertaining to the First Significant Afro-American Grand Opera, Troubled Island, by William Grant Still, with Librettists Langston Hughes and Verna Arvey. Master-Player Library. p. 389. ISBN 978-1-877873-06-5. László Halász studied to be a concert pianist at the Budapest Music Academy where his teachers included Béla Bartók, Zoltan Kodály, Ernö Dohnányi and Leo Weiner.
^ Bernstein, Leonard (2013-10-29). The Leonard Bernstein Letters. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-18654-3. Laszlo Halasz (1905–2001) was the first Music Director of New York City Opera, from 1943 to 1951. He then became Recording Director for Remington Records, as well as a conducting teacher at the Peabody Conservatory and Eastman School of Music.