Somogi, Judith

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Somogi, Judith

Somogi, Judith, American conductor; b. N.Y., May 13, 1937; d. Rockville Centre, N.Y., March 23, 1988. She studied violin, piano, and organ at the Juilliard School of Music in N.Y. (M.M., 1961), and attended courses at the Berkshire Music Center in Tanglewood; later was an assistant to Schippers at the Spoleto Festival and to Stokowski at the American Sym. Orch. in N.Y. In 1974 she made a successful debut with the N.Y.C. Opera conducting The Mikado, and subsequently conducted in

San Francisco, San Diego, San Antonio, and Pittsburgh. She made her European debut in Saarbrücken in 1979. After conducting Madam Butterfly at the Frankfurt am Main Opera in 1981, she held its position of first conductor from 1982 to 1987.

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire