André, Franz

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André, Franz

André, Franz, Belgian conductor, pedagogue, and composer; b. Brussels, June 10, 1893; d. there, Jan. 20, 1975. He studied with C. Thomson (violin) at the Brussels Cons, and with Weingartner (conducting) in Berlin. He taught at the Brussels Cons. (1920–44). In 1923 he became a violinist in the Belgian Radio Orch. in Brussels, and soon was appointed its conductor; in 1935 he founded its Grand Orchestre Symphonique de l’Institut National de Radiodiffusion, which he served as chief conductor until 1958.

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire

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