Otmar Suitner

Otmar Suitner (16 May 1922 – 8 January 2010) was an Austrian conductor who spent most of his professional career in East Germany. He was born in Innsbruck and died in Berlin. He was Principal Conductor of the Staatskapelle Dresden from 1960 to 1964, and then Music Director at the Berlin State Opera from 1964 to 1990. A fairly prolific recording artist, he was particularly notable in Austro-German music, having conducted discs of works by Max Reger and Paul Hindemith as well as the first Beethoven symphony cycle to be released on CD. He taught at the Mozarteum for twenty years. From 1977 to 1990 Suitner was also professor of conducting at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna. Among his finest Graduate Students was Donald Covert (The only American ever to Graduate from the school in Conducting). With a girlfriend, Suitner had one son called Igor and he produced a documentary about his father in Suitner's later years called The Music of My Father.

References

• Otmar Suitner at AllMusic
• Discography