Lorin Maazel (March 6, 1930 - July 13, 2014), was a conductor, violinist and composer. Lorin Maazel was born to Jewish-French parents in Neuilly-sur-Seine in France and brought up in the USA. Raised by a musical family, Lorin Maazel was a prodigy, taking his first conducting lesson at the age of 7 and making his conducting debut at the age of 8! At 11 he guest conducted the NBC Symphony Orchestra on the radio. At the age of 12 he toured America to conduct major orchestras. He made his violin debut at the age of 15. He later studied at the University of Pittsburgh. In 1960, Lorin Maazel became the first American to conduct at Bayreuth. He was conductor of the Deutsche Oper Berlin from 1965 to 1971 and the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra from 1965 to 1975. In 1972, Lorin Maazel began his tenure as music director at the Cleveland Orchestra, succeeding George Szell. During his time there he made the first complete recording of Porgy and Bess by George Gershwin. He has not conducted the Cleveland Orchestra since his departure in 1982. Lorin Maazel served at the Vienna State Opera from 1982 to 1984 as general manager and chief conductor. From 1984 to 1988 he was the music consultant to the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and its music director from 1988 to 1996. From 1993 to 2002 he was chief conductor of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in Munich. Lorin Maazel has conducted music for three operatic films, Don Giovanni (1979), Carmen (1984) and Otello (1986). In 2002, Lorin Maazel made a guest-conducting appearance with the New York Philharmonic after an absence of over 20 years. This engagement led to his appointment in January 2001 as the orchestra's next music director, starting in 2002, succeeding Kurt Masur. He is scheduled to relinquish this position to Alan Gilbert in 2009. In 2004, Lorin Maazel became the music director of the Arturo Toscanini Philharmonic. In March 2006 he toured Asia with Lidia Baich, conducting orchestras such as the Singapore Symphony Orchestra and the NSO of Taiwan. Since 2006 he has been the music director of the orchestra of the opera house of the Ciutal de les Arts i les Ciencies (City of Arts and Sciences) in Valencia, Spain. Lorin Maazel has also composed an opera, 1984, based on the George Orwell novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.