Sir Georg Solti,
KBE (; 21 October 19125 September 1997) was an orchestral and operatic
conductor, best known for his appearances with opera companies in Munich, Frankfurt and London, and as a long-serving music director of the
Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Born in
Budapest, he studied there with
Béla Bartók,
Leó Weiner and
Erno Dohnányi. In the 1930s, he was a
répétiteur at the
Hungarian State Opera and worked at the
Salzburg Festival for
Arturo Toscanini. His career was interrupted by the rise of the
Nazis, and because he was a Jew he fled the increasingly restrictive anti-semitic laws in 1938. After conducting a season of Russian ballet in London at the
Royal Opera House he found refuge in Switzerland, where he remained during the Second World War. Prohibited from conducting there, he earned a living as a pianist.