Caduff, Sylvia

views updated

Caduff, Sylvia

Caduff, Sylvia, Swiss conductor; b. Chur, Jan. 7, 1937. She studied at the Lucerne Cons., receiving a piano diploma in 1961. She then attended Karajan’s conducting classes at the Berlin Cons., and continued conducting studies with Kubelik, Matačić, and Otterloo in Lucerne, Salzburg, and Hilversum. She made her debut with the Tonhalle Orch. of Zurich. After winning first prize in the 1966 Mitropoulos conducting competition in N.Y., she was an asst. conductor under Bernstein with the N.Y. Phil. (1966–67). She then taught conducting at the Bern Cons. (1972–77). In 1977 she became the first woman in Europe to be appointed a Generalmusik-direktor, when she took that position with the orch. of the city of Solingen. She left that position in 1985.

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire