Georg Tintner

Georg Tintner (May 22, 1917 - October 2, 1999) was a Viennese-born conductor. As a child he was a singer in the Vienna Boys' Choir, directed by Franz Schalk. At Vienna State Academy he studied composition with Josef Marx and conducting with Felix Weingartner. Soon he was assistant conductor of the Vienna People's Opera. Due to the persecution of Jews, Tintner moved out of Vienna in 1938 to Auckland, New Zealand, where he directed the Auckland String Players. In 1954, he went to Australia, and became director of its National Opera and a naturalized subject of the United Kingdom. Tintner is credited with pioneering televised opera in Australia. In 1987 he moved to Canada, where he became director of the Symphony Nova Scotia. His carreer ended on October 2, 1999, when he jumped from the balcony of his 11-th storey Halifax apartment. He was losing his six-year struggle with cancer at the time.

Tintner was described as "one of the greatest living Bruckner conductors." Naxos label, for which he recorded a complete cycle of Bruckner symphonies, is releasing a Tintner Memorial Edition.