Michael Gielen

Michael Andreas Gielen (born 20 July 1927) is an Austrian conductor and composer.

Gielen was born in Dresden, Germany, to Rose (née Steuermann) and Josef Gielen; his father, an opera director. Through his mother, Rose, he is the nephew of Eduard Steuermann and Salka Viertel. His father was Christian and his mother was Jewish.

He began his career as a pianist in Buenos Aires, where he studied with Erwin Leuchter and gave an early performance of Arnold Schoenberg's complete piano works in 1949 (the South-American première). While serving as conductor and répétiteur at the Wiener Staatsoper (1950–60), he conducted productions of contemporary music outside the opera house.

His next operatic appointment was as conductor of Royal Swedish Opera from 1960-65, followed by posts at the Netherlands Opera and the Opern- und Schauspielhaus Frankfurt from 1977. He was principal conductor of the Belgian National Orchestra (1969–73), the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra (1980–86) and of the Southwest German Radio Symphony Orchestra (1986–99), which he has been closely associated with since.

He has demonstrated a mastery of the most complex contemporary scores, and he has given many premières, including Helmut Lachenmann's Fassade and Klangschatten – mein Saitenspiel, György Ligeti's Requièm, 's and Bernd Alois Zimmermann's Die Soldaten. In 1973 he recorded Schoenberg's opera Moses und Aron, used as a soundtrack for the film Moses und Aron.

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