Yuri Ahronovich

Who was Yuri Ahronovich?

Yuri Mikhaylovich Ahronovitch was a Soviet-born Israeli conductor.

Born in Leningrad, he studied music and the violin from the age of 4. In 1954 he graduated as conductor from the Leningrad Conservatory. He studied with Nathan Rachlin and Kurt Sanderling. Invitations to conduct leading Russian orchestras followed, including the Leningrad Philharmonic and the Bolshoi Theatre.

After conducting in Petrozavodsk and Saratov, he was assigned to the Yaroslavl Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra 1956-1964, performing symphonic cycles by Beethoven and Tchaikovsky alongside Soviet music such as the works of Aram Khachaturian and Tikhon Khrennikov.

In 1964 he was appointed Chief Conductor of the USSR Ministry of Culture Symphony Orchestra and worked there until emigrating to Israel in 1972.

His recordings for Melodiya, notably Shostakovich's First Symphony, were well received in the West.

Immediate invitations followed to conduct and tour with major orchestras: the London Symphony Orchestra, Israel Philharmonic, Vienna Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo Yomiuri Orchestra, Teatro Alla Scala and others.

From 1975 to 1986 he was Chief Conductor of the Cologne Philharmonic Orchestra and from 1982 to 1987 Chief Conductor of the Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra. Simultaneously Yuri Ahronovitch was also an opera conductor. He conducted at the Royal Opera House in London's Covent Garden, the Lyric Opera in Chicago, important Italian opera houses and Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Opera in Stockholm, Cologne Opera, the Bavarian State Opera in Munich. He made a number of premiere recordings, mainly with the London Symphony, the Stockholm Philharmonic and the Vienna Symphony Orchestra.