Jean Morel
Jean Paul Morel was a French and American conductor and music educator. He was born in Abbeville, France, on January 10, 1903, and died in New York City on April 14, 1975.
He studied in Paris, taking piano lessons with Isidore Philipp, composition with Gabriel Pierné, and theory with Noël Gallon. He also studied opera literature under Reynaldo Hahn. In 1921, at age 18, Morel began teaching at the American Conservatory in Fontainebleau, where he remained on the faculty until 1936. At the same time, he conducted French ensembles, including the orchestra of the Opéra-Comique, the National Orchestra of French Broadcasting, and the Paris Symphony Orchestra. He was also known in France as a percussionist.
Morel moved to the United States in 1938 and began teaching at Brooklyn College in 1940. From 1944, he conducted New York opera productions. He made his Metropolitan Opera debut in 1956, conducting a new English-language production of Jacques Offenbach’s La Périchole.
From 1949, Morel taught at the Juilliard School. His students included James Levine, Leonard Slatkin, Herbert Blomstedt, John Nelson, Leif Segerstam, Herbert de Castro, Catherine Comet, John Canarina, and James Conlon, who credited Morel with shaping his understanding of the French repertoire. Morel retired in 1971.