Levine, James

views updated

JAMES LEVINE

Born: Cincinnati, Ohio, 23 June 1943

Genre: Classical

It was said by some in the 1990s that the best orchestra in America was the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. If it was, credit goes to James Levine, who became the orchestra's principal conductor in 1973 and the opera company's music director in 1976. In 1986 the company showed its approval of Levine by making him its first-ever artistic director. He is credited with developing the Met orchestra and chorus to its highest level ever and securing the Met's status as America's top opera company.

Levine's accomplishments at the Met are in part due to an expansive conducting style and solid musicianship. But they are also the result of his level of commitment to working with the company—he spends more than seven months of every season at the Met, which is unusual in an era of jet-setting maestros. By 2000 he had conducted almost 2,000 performances of seventy operas at the Met. He also grants players in the orchestra an unusually high level of autonomy in managing their own affairs, and his collaborative style has attracted some of the best musicians in America.

One sign of the Met orchestra's high standing is the extent of its performances outside its home opera house. Levine and the orchestra began performing concerts away from the Met in 1991 and have toured Japan, Europe, and the United States, including annual performances at Carnegie Hall.

Though Levine's biggest accomplishments have been as a conductor, his musical talent was first obvious as a pianist. He was a child prodigy and made his pianistic debut at the age of ten as a soloist with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. He studied piano and conducting at the Juilliard School in New York and in 1963 was named assistant conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra under George Szell—at twenty-one, the youngest assistant in the orchestra's history. He stayed in Cleveland for five years, but his real career break came in 1971, when he first guest-conducted at the Met.

Levine established the Metropolitan Opera Presents series of live public television broadcasts and founded the Young Artist Development Program. He has also broadened the company's repertoire by including premieres of operas by Mozart, Verdi, Schoenberg, Rossini, Weill, Berg, Stravinsky, Gershwin, and new commissions from John Corigliano, John Harbison, and Philip Glass.

In addition to his Met duties, Levine is a busy guest conductor and has conducted nearly every major orchestra in the world. He has had close relationships with the Vienna and Berlin Philharmonics, the Dresden Staatskapelle, and London's Philharmonic Orchestra; he has also been a regular guest artist at the festivals in Salzburg and Bayreuth. For twenty-five years (1971–1995) he was music director of the Chicago Symphony's summer Ravinia Festival. In 1999 he became chief conductor of the Munich Philharmonic and was appointed music director of the Boston Symphony beginning in 2004.

Since 1996 Levine has often been conductor of the lucrative Three Tenors stadium shows, and in 1999 he conducted the soundtrack for Disney's Fantasia 2000. He is also a much-admired piano accompanist and chamber musician, and he performs frequently in recital with some of the world's best vocalists and instrumental soloists. He has made more than 200 recordings with some of the best soloists and orchestras in the world.

As a conductor, artistic administrator, pianist, and music personality, Levine has established himself as one of the most important figures on the American classical music scene. Among his many awards and honors are the National Medal of Arts (1997), Austria's Gold Cross of Honor, and a Kennedy Center Honor (2002).

SELECTIVE DISCOGRAPHY:

James Levine's 25th Anniversary Gala (Deutsche Grammophon, 1996); Mahler Symphony No. 7 with the Chicago Symphony (RCA, 1980); Maestro at the Met (Deutsche Grammophon, 1995).