Laszlo Halasz
Laszlo Halasz was an American conductor of Hungarian origin, born in Debrecen on June 6, 1905. He was the nephew of pianist Tivadar Szántó and the husband of cellist Suzette Forg.
Halasz began his musical career as a pianist and graduated in piano from the Budapest Academy of Music. His teachers included Béla Bartók, Zoltán Kodály, Leo Weiner, and Ernst von Dohnányi. He made his concert debut in 1928, but soon turned to conducting and that year joined the Budapest Opera as an assistant conductor.
From 1930 he worked as an assistant to George Szell at the German Opera in Prague. He made his stage debut at the Vienna Volksoper in 1933 and assisted Arturo Toscanini and Bruno Walter at the Salzburg Festival in 1935 and 1936. In 1936, at Toscanini’s invitation, he went to the United States as an assistant with the NBC Symphony Orchestra.
Halasz led the opera company in St. Louis from 1939 to 1941 and conducted in cities across the United States. His engagements included the American premiere of Zoltán Kodály’s opera Háry János at the New York World’s Fair. In 1943 he became the first music director of New York City Opera, a position he held until 1951. He helped shape the company’s emphasis on works beyond the standard repertoire, young and emerging performers, and productions in English. Under his direction, the company presented the American premiere of Richard Strauss’s Ariadne on Naxos in 1946 and the world premiere of William Grant Still’s Blue Steel—also known as The Troubled Island—that same year. His preference for unusual and commercially risky repertoire led to recurring conflict with the opera’s board of trustees and ultimately to his dismissal.
After 1951, Halasz continued to conduct in the United States and Europe and taught for many years at the Peabody Conservatory and the Eastman School of Music. He died in Port Washington, New York, on October 26, 2001.