Tintner, Georg (Bernhard)
Tintner, Georg (Bernhard)
Tintner, Georg (Bernhard), Austrian-born New Zealand conductor; b. Vienna, May 22, 1917; d. (suicide) Halifax, Oct. 2, 1999. He sang in the Vienna Boys’ Choir (1926-30), with which he gained experience as a youthful conductor. He studied composition with Marx (diploma, 1936) and conducting with Weingartner (diploma, 1937) at the Vienna Academy of Music. In 1937 he became an asst. conductor at the Vienna Volksoper, but the Anschluss in 1938 compelled him to flee the Nazis. He settled in New Zealand and became a naturalized New Zealand citizen. He conducted the Auckland Choral Soc. (1946-54) and the Auckland String Players (1947-54), and then was resident conductor of the National Opera of Australia (1954-56) and the Elizabethan Trust Opera Co. (later the Australian Opera; 1956-63; 1965-67). From 1964 to 1968 he was music director of the New Zealand Opera in Wellington. He conducted the Cape Town Municipal Orch. (1966-67) and at the Sadler’s Wells Opera in London (1967-70). From 1970 to 1973 he was music director of the West Australian Opera Co. He conducted at the Australian Opera from 1973 to 1976. From 1977 to 1987 he was music director of the Queensland Theatre Orch. in Brisbane. He was music director of Sym. Nova Scotia in Canada from 1987 to 1994, thereafter serving as its conductor laureate.
—Nicholas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire