Previn, André (George)

orig. Andreas Ludwig Priwin

(born April 6, 1929, Berlin, Ger.) German-born U.S. pianist, composer, and conductor. He fled Nazi persecution with his family and moved to Los Angeles in 1939. He orchestrated and arranged music for MGM in the 1940s and '50s and thereafter scored films for several studios. Meanwhile he had become a noted classical and jazz pianist and started conducting. He served as principal conductor of the Houston Symphony, London Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and Royal Philharmonic orchestras. He also composed a symphony, concertos, and the opera A Streetcar Named Desire (1998), as well as popular songs. He was knighted in 1996.

Previn, André (1929– ) conductor, composer; born in Berlin, Germany. After studying music in Berlin and Paris, he fled the Nazis with his Russian-Jewish family, who went to Los Angeles where his great-uncle was musical director at Universal Studios. He continued to study music, played jazz piano, and began to work as an orchestrator and composer for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. During his army service in 1950, he began to study conducting with Pierre Monteux and made his debut with the St. Louis Symphony in 1963. He went on to become conductor of various orchestras—Houston, London, Pittsburgh, the Royal Philharmonic, and, in 1986, the Los Angeles Philharmonic. In addition to Oscar-winning film scores, he composed musicals (such as Coco, (1969) and concert works; he also continued to play jazz and was an articulate promoter of all types of music.