Arturo Toscanini

Born

March 25, 1867

Died

January 16, 1957 (aged 89)

Known as

musician, conductor, music director, composer, politician, art collector

Arturo Toscanini was an Italian conductor. One of the most acclaimed and influential musicians of the late 19th and early 20th century, Toscanini was renowned for his intensity, his perfectionism, his ear for orchestral detail and sonority, and his eidetic memory. He was at various times the music director of La Scala in Milan and the New York Philharmonic. Later in his career, he was appointed the first music director of the NBC Symphony Orchestra (1937–1954), and this led to his becoming a household name, especially in the United States, through his radio and television broadcasts and many recordings of the operatic and symphonic repertoire.

Biography from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.