Oskar Danon

Oskar Danon, as a Bosnian Jew of Sephardic lineage, was born on 1913 in Sarajevo, then in the Austro-Hungarian Empire (modern Bosnia and Herzegovina). He studied music in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and Prague, Czechoslovakia, where he obtained his Ph.D. in musicology. He worked as a conductor in Sarajevo, and after World War II became conductor and director of the Belgrade Opera (1944–1965) and the chief conductor of the Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra (1970–1974). He was also a conductor of the Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra. With these orchestras he performed both in Yugoslavia and abroad (Paris, Wiesbaden, Florence, etc.). Danon's Vienna State Opera debut in 1964 was The Gambler, in a production from Belgrade, followed over the years by Don Quichotte (Massenet), The Miraculous Mandarin (Bartók), Tannhäuser with Gottlob Frick, Wolfgang Windgassen, Eberhard Waechter, Christa Ludwig and Gundula Janowitz, Carmen, La traviata, Aida, The Flying Dutchman, Rigoletto, Madama Butterfly and Otello. For the Verdi Theatre in Trieste he conducted Boris Godunov, The Golden Cockerel and Countess Maritza.

Danon died in Belgrade on 18 December 2009, aged 96. He is interred in the Alley of Distinguished Citizens in the Belgrade New Cemetery.

Oskar Danon is recorded as composer, conductor and choir director. Recorded at birth as Оскар Данон.