Son of Alfonso Cassuto, who lived in Hamburg and fled the nazi’s to Portugal.
Appointed subdirector of the RDP Symphonic Orchestra {Portuguese Radio Broadoasting Station) in 1970, and elected conductor in 1975, \u00c1lvaro Cassuto entered upon an active International career conducting some European and American orchestras {BBC, Berlin, Prague, Brussels, London and Philadelphia Phillarmonic Orchestras among several others). He studied with ,Freitas Branco in Lisbon and with Von Karajan in Berlin, became assistant of Leopold Stokowsky in New York in 1968, and fn 1969 he was awarded the prize Koussevitzky by the Boston Symphony Orchestra. He also graduated in Law by the Lisbon University and in Orchestra Conduction by the Vienna Conservatory.
He was director of the Symphony Orchestra of the California University since 1974. As composer, he writes mainly for orchestra; his works have been performed in several countries and already published in the USA and Germany.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
from the Jerusalem Post:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wandering maestro
By Michael Ajzenstadt (November 7) – Like most orchestral conductors these days, the life of Alvaro Cassuto resembles that of a vagabond who spends most of his time in airports and hotel rooms.
The Portugese maestro now spends part of his time in a hotel room in Herzliya, in preparation for a series of concerts with the Ra’anana Symphonette Orchestra starting tomorrow night.
“You cannot imagine how calm I am when I realize that what is happening here has nothing to do with what people see on television [about the rioting]. To be here these days and see the country living normally is a great joy,” he says.
Cassuto’s family history epitomizes the concept of the wandering Jew through the ages. “My ancestors come from Livorno in Italy, and as the Cassuto of the Bible fame came from Florence, I know that sometime in the 18th century we were cousins. My grandfather left Italy and came to Hamburg. And then in 1933 my grandfather and my father moved to Oporto in Portugal, which is where I was born 61 years ago.”
Why Oporto of all places? “There was a small Jewish community there and they invited my father, a 22-year-old philology student in Hamburg, to come and teach in their school,” he says.
And so Cassuto himself was educated in Portugal, but enjoyed a Germanic education. “Music was part of the household. My grandfather played the violin and my grandmother played the piano, so music was in the house day in and day out.”
In Vienna, Cassuto went on to study conducting, and after he won the Koussevitsky award in Tanglewood in 1969, his conducting career began to flourish. He lived in the US for 18 years, and worked as a professor of music at the University of California, music director of the Rhode Island Philharmonic and of the National Orchestra of New York.
In 1986, Cassuto was invited to return to Portugal. There he became founder and music director of the private New Portuguese Philharmonica and in 1993 of the Portuguese Symphony Orchestra.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cassuto first conducted in Israel in the late 1970s, when he was invited by Lukas Foss to lead the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra. Then he returned three years ago for a series of concerts with the Ra’anana Symphonette, and now is back again with the same orchestra.
“There is a lot of potential in the Symphonette. The musicians are very dedicated and extremely professional – they have a great willingness to make music and so it remains in the hands of the conductor to make music. ” Alvaro Cassuto leads the Ra’anana Symphonette Orch\u001festra in music by Rossini, Korngold, Beethoven and Bach, the latter in memory of Yitzhak Rabin. The soloist is Symphonette concertmaster Nitai Tzori. Concerts take place in Ra’anana’s Yad Labanim tomorrow, Thursday, and Saturday at 9 p.m.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
(source Jerusalem Post, 2000)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Son of Alfonso Cassuto, who lived in Hamburg and fled the nazi’s to Portugal.Appointed subdirector of the RDP Symphonic Orchestra {Portuguese Radio Broadoasting Station) in 1970, and elected conductor in 1975, \u00c1lvaro Cassuto entered upon an active International career conducting some European and American orchestras {BBC, Berlin, Prague, Brussels, London and Philadelphia Phillarmonic Orchestras among … Lees verder \u00c1lvaro Leon Cassuto<\/span>