Sergiu Comissiona

Sergiu Comissiona emerged among the foremost conductors of the twentieth century, earning particular distinction for his skill in constructing orchestras from the ground up. His training began at the Bucharest Conservatory before continuing under private guidance from Silvestri and Lindenberg. At seventeen he stepped onto the podium for the first time, directing Gounod’s Faust in the Romanian town of Silbiu.

His earliest paid work came in 1947, when he joined the Bucharest Radio Quartet as a violinist and simultaneously played in the Rumanian State Ensemble. A conducting appearance with the Rumanian State Opera Orchestra had already taken place the previous year. In 1948 he was named assistant conductor of the Rumanian State Ensemble, an organization that combined orchestra, chorus, and dancers; five years later he assumed its musical directorship, a post he held until 1955.

The Rumanian State Opera appointed him principal conductor in 1955. The following year he captured first prize at the Besançon Conducting Competition. His Jewish background prompted emigration to Israel in 1959, where he immediately became musical director of the Haifa Symphony Orchestra. In 1960 he established the Ramat Gan Chamber Orchestra and served as its musical director.

European guest engagements soon followed, among them a 1960 debut with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. North America first encountered him when he led the Israel Chamber Orchestra on tour in 1963. He conducted the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1965 and appeared regularly with the Royal Ballet at London’s Covent Garden between 1962 and 1966, where audiences especially admired his accounts of the Tchaikovsky and Stravinsky ballets. He stepped down from the Haifa post in 1966.

That same year brought his appointment as musical director of Sweden’s Göteborg Symphony Orchestra, a relationship that lasted until 1977. In 1967 he relinquished the Ramat Gan ensemble to become principal conductor of the Northern Ireland Orchestra in Belfast for one season. Baltimore appointed him music director in 1969, prompting a move to the Maryland port city near Washington, D.C.

Both the Göteborg and Baltimore ensembles registered swift, sustained gains in performance standards under his leadership; he remained in Baltimore for seventeen seasons. Baltimore Sun critic Stephen Wigler observed, “The modern Baltimore Symphony was created by Sergiu Comissiona.” On 4 July 1976, America’s Bicentennial, he took the oath of United States citizenship in a ceremony at Fort McHenry, the historic site where the Star-Spangled Banner first flew during the British bombardment of 1812.

While leading the Baltimore Symphony he also directed several festivals and served as music director of New York’s American Symphony Orchestra from 1977 to 1982. Upon leaving Baltimore in 1986 he received the title Conductor Laureate and continued to appear with the orchestra. In 1990 he became Chief Conductor of Madrid’s Spanish Radio and Television Symphony Orchestra, remaining until 1998, and held the same title with the Helsinki Philharmonic from 1990 to 1994. Additional, briefer engagements linked him to several other ensembles during this period.

Also in 1990 he assumed the music directorship of the CBC Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and took charge of the Asian Youth Orchestra, leading the latter on an extensive European tour. His interpretations were noted for their richness, clarity, and intensity, paired with an aptitude for imaginative and wide-ranging repertory choices.