Eugene Ormandy (November 18, 1899-March 13, 1985) was a Hungarian-American conductor and violinist. Biography Eugene Ormandy, born Jenő Blau in Budapest, Hungary, began studying the violin at the National Hungarian Royal Academy of Music, now the Franz Liszt Academy of Music at the age of five. He gave his first concerts as a violinist at age seven, and graduated at fourteen with a master's degree. In 1920, he obtained a university degree in philosophy. ...show more

Eugene Ormandy (November 18, 1899-March 13, 1985) was a Hungarian-American conductor and violinist. Biography Eugene Ormandy, born Jenő Blau in Budapest, Hungary, began studying the violin at the National Hungarian Royal Academy of Music, now the Franz Liszt Academy of Music at the age of five. He gave his first concerts as a violinist at age seven, and graduated at fourteen with a master's degree. In 1920, he obtained a university degree in philosophy.

In 1921 he moved to the United States of America (taking his name from the ship on which he traveled, the SS Normandie). He worked first as a violinist in the Major Bowes Capitol Theater Orchestra in New York City. He became the concertmaster within five days of joining and became the conductor of this group which accompanied silent movies. Ormandy also made sixteen recordings as a violinist between 1923 and 1929, half of them using the acoustic process.

Arthur Judson, the most powerful manager of American classical music during the 1930s, greatly assisted Ormandy's career. In particular, when Arturo Toscanini was too ill to conduct the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1931, Judson asked Ormandy to stand in. This led to his first major appointment as a conductor, in Minneapolis. Recordings Eugene Ormandy may have been the most-recorded American conductor ever. ...show less