“George Cleve, a conductor known to New York audiences for his guest appearances with the Mostly Mozart Festival and New York City Ballet, died on Thursday at his home in Berkeley, Calif.,” writes Margalit Fox in Saturday’s (8/29) New York Times. “He was 79. The cause was liver failure.” Cleve “spent his career primarily on the West Coast. He was the music director of the San Jose Symphony from 1972 to 1992, and in 1974 founded the Midsummer Mozart Festival, an annual concert series in the Bay Area that he directed to the end of his life.” As guest conductor he appeared with such orchestras as the New York, Los Angeles, and Israeli philharmonics; the Boston, San Francisco, and Montreal symphonies; the Cleveland Orchestra; and London’s Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Cleve was born July 9, 1936, in Vienna. “The Cleves, who were Jewish, fled Austria after the Nazi annexation of 1938, settling in New York in 1940.” Following early training in piano and violin, Cleve “went on to study at the Mannes College of Music, and at Tanglewood he worked with the conductor Pierre Monteux, who became a longtime mentor.” Survivors include his wife, Maria Tamburrino; a son; and a granddaughter.
Posted August 31, 2016
