Klaus Tennstedt

Klaus Tennstedt
Klaus Tennstedt Conducting
Background information
Born	(1926-06-06)6 June 1926 Merseburg, Germany
Died	11 January 1998(1998-01-11) (aged 71) Kiel, Germany
Genres	Classical
Occupation(s)	Conductor
Years active	1958–1994

Klaus Tennstedt (German: [ˈtɛnʃtɛt]; June 6, 1926 – January 11, 1998) was a German conductor from Merseburg; he conducted such orchestras as the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra; Kiel Opera in Northern Germany; North German Radio Orchestra, in Hamburg; the Minnesota Orchestra; and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra.

He studied violin and piano at the Leipzig Conservatory. He avoided military service during the Nazi era by joining a Baroque orchestra. He became concertmaster of the orchestra at the Halle Municipal Theatre in 1948. However, a finger injury stopped his career as a violinist, and afterwards he worked as a coach to singers at the same theatre. Tennstedt then directed his talents toward conducting. In 1958, he became music director of the Dresden Opera, and in 1962, music director of the Schwerin State Orchestra and Theatre.

Tennstedt emigrated from East Germany in 1971 and obtained asylum in Sweden. He conducted in Gothenburg with the Göteborg Theatre and in Stockholm with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra. In 1972, he became General Music Director of the Kiel Opera in Northern Germany. From 1979 to 1981, he served as Chief Conductor of the North German Radio Symphony Orchestra (NDR Symphony) in Hamburg, and during the same period (1979–82) he was Principal Guest Conductor of the Minnesota Orchestra.

In 1974, Tennstedt made his North American debut with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. His first US appearance was shortly after that, with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, on December 13, 1974, conducting an all-Brahms program. The following week he led Bruckner's Symphony No. 8 to laudatory reviews. In Norman Lebrecht's The Maestro Myth, the story was told that when the Boston management asked Tennstedt what he wanted to conduct, he replied: "You mean I get to choose?" His appearances were so highly acclaimed that as a result, Tennstedt guest-conducted at the Tanglewood Music Festival and Blossom Music Festival in 1975. His American opera debut was at the Metropolitan Opera, New York, in 1983, conducting a production of Beethoven's Fidelio. He also guest-conducted with the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Cincinnati Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Detroit Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. In Europe he guest conducted the Bavarian Radio Symphony, the Berlin Philharmonic, and the SDR Symphony (now the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra).