George Szell

Hungarian-born American conductor and composer, born June 7, 1897 in Budapest, Austria-Hungary (today Hungary), died July 30, 1970 in Cleveland, Ohio, USA. He is remembered today for his long and successful tenure as music director of The Cleveland Orchestra, which he directed from 1946 until his death. At that he was credited, to quote the critic Donal Henahan, with having built it into "what many critics regarded as the world's keenest symphonic instrument."