Sopkin, Henry

views updated

Sopkin, Henry

Sopkin, Henry, American conductor; b. N.Y., Oct. 20, 1903; d. Stanford, Calif., March 1, 1988. He was reared in Chicago, where he earned degrees in violin at the American Cons. of Music. He was head of its instrumental dept. and also taught at Woodrow Wilson Coll.; in 1944 he became conductor of the Atlanta Youth Sym. Orch., which served as the foundation of the Atlanta Sym. Orch. in 1945, which he conducted until 1966; then taught briefly at the Calif. Inst. of the Arts in Valencia.

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire