Barlow, Howard

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Barlow, Howard

Barlow, Howard, American conductor; b. Plain City, Ohio, May 1, 1892; d. Bethel, Conn., Jan. 31, 1972. He received training in law at Columbia Univ. In 1919 he made his debut as a conductor at a MacDowell Colony festival in Peterborough, N.H. He settled in N.Y., where he was founder-conductor of the American National Orch. (1923–25), which was made up entirely of musicians born in the U.S. In 1927 he joined the conducting staff of CBS, where he was general music director from 1932 to 1943. From 1940 to 1943 he also was conductor of the Baltimore Sym. Orch. He was conductor of “The Voice of Firestone” orch. on NBC radio from 1943 to 1961, and also on NBC TV from 1949 to 1961. Barlow commissioned and conducted first performances of many scores by American composers.

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire