Jean Martinon

Jean Martinon was a French composer and conductor of classical music whose career included stints with major orchestras including the London Philharmonic, the Düsseldorf Symphony Orchestra and the Chicago Symphony. He also wrote orchestral pieces for piano, percussion and strings and an opera and toured extensively across Europe and Asia. Born in Lyon, he studied at the conservatories there and in Paris and graduated as a violinist. He studied with Charles Munch and worked mostly as a composer but his career was interrupted by service in the French army at the outbreak of World War II as well as two years in a Nazi prison camp. While incarcerated, he composed two pieces of music - 'Stalag 9 ou Musique d'Exil' for orchestra and the motet 'Absolve Domine'. Released in 1943, he turned to conducting, first with the Bordeaux Symphony Orchestra and then with the Paris Conservatory Orchestra. He had a stint with the London Philharmonic and toured extensively until 1957 when he made his conducting debut in America with the Boston Symphony, which performed his 'Symphony No. 2'. Martinon continued to compose as his conducting duties increased with France's Orchestre Des Concerts Lamoureux, the Israel Philharmonic and the Düsseldorf Symphony. His tenure with the Chicago Symphony ran from 1963 to 1968 with a repertoire that featured 60 works. Many albums were released during that time and they were brought together in 2015 for a nine-CD boxset titled 'Jean Martinon and Chicago Symphony Orchestra - The Complete Recordings'. Some 175 albums feature the conductor with the orchestras he led featuring his own works and others by composers including Benjamin Britten, Albert Roussel, Claude Debussy, Paul Dukas, and Georges Bizet. When he left Chicago, he joined the French National Radio Orchestra and recorded most of the classic French repertoire. Martinon then became principal conductor of Residentie Orkest in The Hague but he died soon afterwards of bone cancer in Paris aged 66.

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