Biography
Known for his achievements as a classical conductor, jazz pianist, and writer of jazz, classical, and film scores, André Previn often connected the worlds of popular and “serious” music, thereby expanding the reach of each. A German-American whose family escaped Nazi Germany during his childhood, he secured four Academy Awards for his contributions to film musicals in the late 1950s and 1960s, among them his adaptation of My Fair Lady (1964). By the 1970s he ranked among the foremost classical conductors internationally, holding posts with the London Symphony Orchestra (1968-1979), Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra (1976-1984), and Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (1985-1992). He also led the Los Angeles Philharmonic as music director from 1985 to 1989. While at the LSO, the BBC series André Previn’s Music Hour turned him into a household name. Throughout these years his jazz discography featured work with Benny Carter, Herb Ellis, and Shelly Manne, together with classical performers such as Itzhak Perlman, Leontyne Price, and Kiri Te Kanawa. A ten-time Grammy winner, Previn received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2010.
Born in Berlin, Previn grew up with a father who, though trained as a lawyer, was a skilled pianist and resolved that his son would pursue music. The young André studied piano at the Berlin Hochschule and encountered additional repertoire through the private recitals regularly held in the Previn household. In 1938 the Jewish family fled to France, where André continued studies on scholarship at the Paris Conservatoire. In 1939 the Previns moved to southern California.
The family faced hardship after leaving all possessions behind in Europe and discovering that Previn’s father could practice only German law; at scarcely ten years of age, André helped support them by playing piano for silent films in theaters and performing in jazz clubs. At 14 he began employment at MGM—where his great-uncle Charles Previn headed the music department at Universal Studios—orchestrating and arranging film music, gradually saving funds to study composition with Castelnuovo-Tedesco. At 18 he received his first commission for a complete film score, 1949’s The Sun Comes Up, which also marked his initial appearance before an orchestra as conductor.
After acquiring U.S. citizenship in 1943, Previn served in San Francisco during the Korean War and studied conducting there with Pierre Monteux. Following his discharge he departed MGM yet continued composing, conducting, and arranging film music through the 1950s, earning Academy Awards for his adaptations of Gigi (1958) and Porgy & Bess (1959). He also issued a sequence of commercially successful jazz albums, an activity he maintained intermittently over subsequent decades.
Previn’s early-1960s film scores encompassed enduring titles such as Elmer Gantry (1960) and The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1962). Shortly before claiming his third and fourth Academy Awards for Irma la Douce (1963) and My Fair Lady (1964), he resolved to leave Hollywood and concentrate on a conducting career. His professional debut took place in 1963 with the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra; he then spent several years guest-conducting lesser-known ensembles nationwide to build experience and visibility. His first major appointment arrived in 1967 when he succeeded Sir John Barbirolli as music director of the Houston Symphony. Offered the principal conductorship of the London Symphony Orchestra in 1968, he left Houston. During his eleven-year tenure (1968-1979) the BBC television series André Previn’s Music Hour brought both the LSO and Previn international recognition. Additional conducting posts followed with the Pittsburgh Symphony (1976-1984), the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra (1985-1989), and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (1985-1992).
Previn acknowledged that he composed chiefly on commission rather than from inner compulsion, yet he produced a substantial body of concert works, among them a piano concerto written for Vladimir Ashkenazy and a cello sonata requested by Yo-Yo Ma. In 1998 his full-length opera A Streetcar Named Desire received its premiere at the San Francisco Opera. In 2009 Houston Grand Opera staged his Brief Encounter, drawn from the 1945 film and the Noël Coward play Still Life that had inspired it. That same year Carnegie Hall honored his 80th birthday with four concerts surveying the breadth of his career. One year later he was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Previn died at the end of February 2019.
Born in Berlin, Previn grew up with a father who, though trained as a lawyer, was a skilled pianist and resolved that his son would pursue music. The young André studied piano at the Berlin Hochschule and encountered additional repertoire through the private recitals regularly held in the Previn household. In 1938 the Jewish family fled to France, where André continued studies on scholarship at the Paris Conservatoire. In 1939 the Previns moved to southern California.
The family faced hardship after leaving all possessions behind in Europe and discovering that Previn’s father could practice only German law; at scarcely ten years of age, André helped support them by playing piano for silent films in theaters and performing in jazz clubs. At 14 he began employment at MGM—where his great-uncle Charles Previn headed the music department at Universal Studios—orchestrating and arranging film music, gradually saving funds to study composition with Castelnuovo-Tedesco. At 18 he received his first commission for a complete film score, 1949’s The Sun Comes Up, which also marked his initial appearance before an orchestra as conductor.
After acquiring U.S. citizenship in 1943, Previn served in San Francisco during the Korean War and studied conducting there with Pierre Monteux. Following his discharge he departed MGM yet continued composing, conducting, and arranging film music through the 1950s, earning Academy Awards for his adaptations of Gigi (1958) and Porgy & Bess (1959). He also issued a sequence of commercially successful jazz albums, an activity he maintained intermittently over subsequent decades.
Previn’s early-1960s film scores encompassed enduring titles such as Elmer Gantry (1960) and The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1962). Shortly before claiming his third and fourth Academy Awards for Irma la Douce (1963) and My Fair Lady (1964), he resolved to leave Hollywood and concentrate on a conducting career. His professional debut took place in 1963 with the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra; he then spent several years guest-conducting lesser-known ensembles nationwide to build experience and visibility. His first major appointment arrived in 1967 when he succeeded Sir John Barbirolli as music director of the Houston Symphony. Offered the principal conductorship of the London Symphony Orchestra in 1968, he left Houston. During his eleven-year tenure (1968-1979) the BBC television series André Previn’s Music Hour brought both the LSO and Previn international recognition. Additional conducting posts followed with the Pittsburgh Symphony (1976-1984), the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra (1985-1989), and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (1985-1992).
Previn acknowledged that he composed chiefly on commission rather than from inner compulsion, yet he produced a substantial body of concert works, among them a piano concerto written for Vladimir Ashkenazy and a cello sonata requested by Yo-Yo Ma. In 1998 his full-length opera A Streetcar Named Desire received its premiere at the San Francisco Opera. In 2009 Houston Grand Opera staged his Brief Encounter, drawn from the 1945 film and the Noël Coward play Still Life that had inspired it. That same year Carnegie Hall honored his 80th birthday with four concerts surveying the breadth of his career. One year later he was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Previn died at the end of February 2019.