JoÓ, Arpâd

JoÓ, Arpâd, Hungarian-born American conductor; b. Budapest, June 8, 1948. He pursued private musical instruction with Kodâly (1954–65) and Ferencsik (1954–68). From 1958 to 1964 he was a piano student at the Bela Bartók Cons, in Budapest. He was also a private pupil of Carlo Zecchi (piano and conducting, 1963-65) and of Magaloff (piano, 1964-65), and studied piano with Joseph Gat and Kadosa at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest (1964–68). After further piano lessons with Irwin Freundlich at the Juilliard School in N.Y. (1968–69), he concentrated on conducting studies with Rozsnyai in San Diego (1969), Wolfgang Vacano and Tibor Kozma at Ind. Univ. (1970–73), Markevitch (1972–73), and Giulini (1979). In 1975 he became a naturalized American citizen. He was music director of the Knoxville (Term.) Sym. Orch. (1973–78) and the Calgary (Alberta) Phil. (1978–81), subsequently serving as music adviser and principal conductor of the latter (1981–83). In 1985 he was principal guest conductor of the European Community Chamber Orch. in Eindhoven; from 1985 to 1987 he was music director of the Nyirbator Festival in Hungary. In 1986 he was appointed principal guest conductor of the Budapest Sym. Orch., and in 1987, music director of the sym. orch. and chorus of Spanish Radio and Television in Madrid, which position he held until 1991. He also was prof, of conducting at the master classes in Assisi (from 1987) and music adviser and principal guest conductor of the Brabant Orch. in Eindhoven (1989–91). He has won critical accolades for his idiomatic performances of Liszt, Bartók, and Kodâly.

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire