RUDEL, JULIUS

RUDEL, JULIUS (1921– ), U.S. conductor and music administrator of Austrian birth. Rudel studied at the Vienna Academy of Music from 1936 to 1938, when he immigrated with his family to the United States. A further period of study followed at the Mannes School of Music in New York City. In 1943 he joined the New York City Opera Company and made his conducting début there in The Gypsy Baron (1944). From 1957 to 1979, he was the company's musical director and developed it into one of the best companies in the United States. Rudel championed the cause of American opera, presenting the first performances of new stage works by American composers; he also presented the first American performances of many other contemporary operas, including Albert Ginastera's Don Rodrigo Bomarzo and Beatrix Cenci, and Hans Werner Henze's The Young Lord. From 1971 he was musical director of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington, D.C., and of the Caramoor Festival at Katonah, N.Y. He also appeared as guest conductor with leading American symphony orchestras (including the Buffalo PO, 1981–83) and other American opera companies; at the Vienna Volksoper (where he conducted a very successful German version of Kiss Me, Kate in 1956); in Israel; and at the Spoleto Festival in Italy. He made his debut at the Paris Opera in 1973. Rudel received numerous awards from American cultural organizations, and in 1961 the Austrian government bestowed on him honorary insignia for the arts and sciences. An award for young conductors was established in his honor in 1969. His recordings include Handel's Giulio Cesare with the New York City Opera, versions of Boito's Mefistofele and Massenet's Thaïs and Cendrillon. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Grove Music Online. (Max Loppert / Israela Stein (2nd ed.)