Christoph von Dohnányi was a German conductor and theater director. He was born in Berlin on September 8, 1929, and died in Munich on September 6, 2025. His grandfather was Ernst von Dohnányi, his father was Hans von Dohnányi, and his brother was Klaus von Dohnányi.
He attended St. Thomas School in Leipzig and sang in the St. Thomas Choir. He studied law in Munich before transferring to the Munich Conservatory in 1948. While still a student, he worked as a répétiteur at the Munich Opera. He later continued his education at the University of Florida, studying with his grandfather.
From 1953, Dohnányi worked as a conductor and répétiteur at the Frankfurt Opera. He led the Lübeck Opera from 1957 to 1963, the Frankfurt Opera from 1968 to 1977, and the Hamburg Opera from 1977 to 1984; at the latter two, he was both chief conductor and director. From 1964 to 1969, he was the first chief conductor of the Cologne Radio Symphony Orchestra.
Dohnányi led the Cleveland Orchestra from 1984 to 2002, recording, among other works, the complete symphonies of Beethoven, Schumann, and Brahms. From 1997 to 2008, he was chief conductor of the Philharmonia Orchestra in London. With the orchestra, he gave symphonic concerts and made recordings, and led opera productions at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, including Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex, Schoenberg’s Moses and Aaron, and Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel. He was also music director of the Orchestre de Paris from 1998 to 2000 and led the North German Radio Symphony Orchestra from 2004. His awards included the Goethe Medal of the City of Frankfurt am Main in 1979 and the Ditson Award. His first wife was the singer Anja Silja.