Sergiu Comissiona was a Romania

Romania

Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...

n conductor

Conducting

Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance by way of visible gestures. The primary duties of the conductor are to unify performers, set the tempo, execute clear preparations and beats, and to listen critically and shape the sound of the ensemble...

 and violin

Violin

The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....

ist.

Early life

Born in Bucharest

Bucharest

Bucharest is the capital municipality, cultural, industrial, and financial centre of Romania. It is the largest city in Romania, located in the southeast of the country, at , and lies on the banks of the Dâmbovița River....

, Romania, he began violin

Violin

The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....

 studies at the age of five, was hired as a violin

Violin

The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....

ist by the Romanian State Ensemble while still in his teens, making his conducting debut at the age of 17. In his twenties he was named principal conductor of the Romanian National Opera

Romanian National Opera

The Romanian National Opera is one of the national opera companies of Romania, situated in a historical building in Bucharest, near the Cotroceni neighbourhood....

, which he led from 1955 to 1959.

Career

He fled the Communist

Communist Romania

Communist Romania was the period in Romanian history when that country was a Soviet-aligned communist state in the Eastern Bloc, with the dominant role of Romanian Communist Party enshrined in its successive constitutions...

 regime in 1959 and emigrated to Israel

Israel

The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

. In 1960 he founded the Ramat Gan Chamber Orchestra, which he led until 1967. He also directed the Haifa Symphony from 1959 until 1966. He made his American debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra

Philadelphia Orchestra

The Philadelphia Orchestra is a symphony orchestra based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the United States. One of the "Big Five" American orchestras, it was founded in 1900...

 in 1965 and emigrated to the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 in 1968. Later he was also music director of the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra

Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra

The Göteborgs Symfoniker is an orchestra based in Gothenburg, Sweden. Founded in 1905, it was granted the title of the "National Orchestra of Sweden" in 1997...

, Sweden

Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

, from 1966 to 1977, and became chief conductor of the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic

Netherlands Radio Philharmonic

The Radio Filharmonisch Orkest is a Dutch radio orchestra, based in Hilversum. The RFO performs under the aegis of the Muziekcentrum van de Omroep , an umbrella organization bringing together the music departments of the various broadcasting associations affiliated to Nederlandse Publieke...

 in Hilversum

Hilversum

is a municipality and a town in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. Located in the region called "'t Gooi", it is the largest town in that area. It is surrounded by heathland, woods, meadows, lakes, and smaller villages...

, Netherlands

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

, in 1982. Comissiona also held music directorships with some of North America's leading ensembles, including the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra

Baltimore Symphony Orchestra

The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra is a professional American symphony orchestra based in Baltimore, Maryland.In September 2007, Maestra Marin Alsop led her inaugural concerts as the Orchestra’s twelfth music director, making her the first woman to head a major American orchestra.The BSO Board...

, the Houston Symphony, the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra

Vancouver Symphony Orchestra

The Vancouver Symphony Orchestra is a Canadian orchestra performing in Vancouver, British Columbia. Over 240,000 people attend its live performances each year. It was founded in 1930 and plays in 12 venues. Its home is the Orpheum theatre. With an annual operating budget of $9.5 million, it is the...

 and was also music director of the New York City Opera

New York City Opera

The New York City Opera is an American opera company located in New York City.The company, called "the people's opera" by New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, was founded in 1943 with the aim of making opera financially accessible to a wide audience, producing an innovative choice of repertory, and...

. Beginning in 1969 he spent 15 years with the Baltimore Orchestra and transformed it from a little-known ensemble into a nationally respected orchestra, eventually leading taking it on its first international tour and directing it in its first recordings. He was also the Music Director of the Asian Youth Orchestra

Asian Youth Orchestra

The Asian Youth Orchestra was founded by Yehudi Menuhin & Richard Pontzious. Their inaugural concerts were conducted in August 1990 by Yehudi Menuhin. Sergiu Comissiona is their conductor laureate and Richard Pontzious, artistic director and conductor...

. Comissiona was principal conductor of the Spanish national broadcasting network orchestra in Madrid

Madrid

Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...

, the RTVE Symphony Orchestra

RTVE Symphony Orchestra

The RTVE Symphony Orchestra , also known as the Spanish Radio and Television Symphony Orchestra is a Spanish radio orchestra servicing RTVE, the Spanish national broadcasting network....

, from 1990 to 1998.

From 1997 until his death, Comissiona was principal guest conductor for the USC Thornton Symphony at the University of Southern California

University of Southern California

The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...

 Thornton School of Music

USC Thornton School of Music

The University of Southern California Thornton School of Music, founded in 1884 and dedicated in 1999, is one of the premier music schools in the United States...

.

World premiere performances

He premiered and made the first recordings of a number of modern works including symphonies by Allan Pettersson

Allan Pettersson

Gustav Allan Pettersson was a Swedish composer. Today he is considered one of the most important Swedish composers of the 20th century...

, who dedicated his Symphony No. 9

Symphony No. 9 (Pettersson)

Allan Pettersson wrote his Symphony No. 9 in 1970.The symphony is his last composition preceding a nine-month stay in hospital ; it is also his longest symphony. There is one movement, though it divides into a number of smaller sections that follow each other with at most nominal pause but usually...

 to him, as well as works by Michael Jeffrey Shapiro

Michael Jeffrey Shapiro

Michael Jeffrey Shapiro is a noted American composer and conductor.The son of a klezmer band clarinetist, Michael Shapiro was born in Brooklyn, New York, and spent most of his high school years in Baldwin, a Long Island suburb. The winner of several piano competitions during his youth, he earned...

 and Elie Siegmeister

Elie Siegmeister

Elie Siegmeister was an American composer, educator and author.His varied musical output showed his concern with the development of an authentic American musical vocabulary...

. Comissiona conducted Siegmeister's An Entertainment for Violin, Piano, and Orchestra at the Merriwether Post Pavilion on July 2, 1976 with Ann Saslav, piano, and Isidor Saslav, the BSO's concertmaster, as soloists. The Saslavs had commissioned the work from Siegmeister.

Personal life

Comissiona and his wife became American citizens on July 4, 1976, at a special Bicentennial ceremony at Fort McHenry

Fort McHenry

Fort McHenry, in Baltimore, Maryland, is a star-shaped fort best known for its role in the War of 1812, when it successfully defended Baltimore Harbor from an attack by the British navy in Chesapeake Bay...

 on Baltimore Harbor. He was a longtime resident of New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

. He died of a heart attack

Myocardial infarction

Myocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, results from the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die...

, in Oklahoma City

Oklahoma city

Oklahoma City is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma.Oklahoma City may also refer to:*Oklahoma City metropolitan area*Downtown Oklahoma City*Uptown Oklahoma City*Oklahoma City bombing*Oklahoma City National Memorial...

, Oklahoma

Oklahoma

Oklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,751,351 residents as of the 2010 census and a land area of 68,667 square miles , Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state...

, just hours before he was to perform.

Honours and awards

He was made a Knight

Knight

A knight was a member of a class of lower nobility in the High Middle Ages.By the Late Middle Ages, the rank had become associated with the ideals of chivalry, a code of conduct for the perfect courtly Christian warrior....

 of l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres

Ordre des Arts et des Lettres

The Ordre des Arts et des Lettres is an Order of France, established on 2 May 1957 by the Minister of Culture, and confirmed as part of the Ordre national du Mérite by President Charles de Gaulle in 1963...

of France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

; received a Mus D. honoris causa from the New England Conservatory in Boston, Massachusetts

Massachusetts

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...

; was an honorary member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music

Royal Swedish Academy of Music

The Royal Swedish Academy of Music or Kungl. Musikaliska Akademien, founded in 1771 by King Gustav III, is one of the Royal Academies in Sweden...

and founder national competition for young American conductors of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.