Paul Kletzki was a Polish and Swiss conductor and composer. Born in Lodz to a Jewish merchant family, he began playing violin in the city orchestra at age 15. He studied philosophy at the University of Warsaw, violin with Emil Młynarski, and composition with Juliusz Wertheim.
In 1921, Kletzki moved to Berlin, where Wilhelm Furtwängler supported his conducting studies and gave him the opportunity to perform with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra in 1925. Kletzki moved to Italy in 1933, then to the Soviet Union in 1936. He performed with the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra and was chief conductor of the Kharkiv Philharmonic from 1937 to 1938. In 1938 he returned to Western Europe and settled in Switzerland, becoming a Swiss citizen in 1947. He taught conducting at the Lausanne Conservatory, where he became a professor in 1940, and took part in the Lucerne Festival.
After the Second World War, Kletzki became an internationally known conductor. His repertoire focused mainly on Austro-German composers, including Mahler’s symphonies, and also featured a substantial body of 19th-century Russian music. He led the Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra from 1954 to 1955, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra from 1958 to 1961, the Bern Symphony Orchestra from 1964 to 1966, and the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande from 1966 to 1970.
As a composer, Kletzki wrote his Third Symphony in 1939, along with two string quartets, a sonata for violin and piano, and other orchestral and chamber works. He stopped composing in 1942. He died in Liverpool on March 5, 1973.