List of famous conductors - Definition and Overview

These people are famous as choral, orchestral or operatic conductors:

Contents: Top - A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

A

• Claudio Abbado
• Maurice Abravanel
• Salvatore Accardo (more famous as a violinist)
• Samuel Adler
• Marin Alsop
• Karel Ancerl
• Ernest Ansermet
• Bruno Aprea
• Sir Richard Armstrong
• Vladimir Ashkenazy (equally famous as a pianist)

B

• Sir John Barbirolli
• Daniel Barenboim
• Rudolf Barshai
• Leon Barzin
• Serge Baudo
• Sir Thomas Beecham
• Eduard van Beinum
• Jiri Belohlávek
• Umberto Benedetti Michelangeli (brother of piano soloist Arturo)
• Leonard Bernstein
• Paavo Berglund
• Hector Berlioz (more famous as a composer)
• Leo Blech
• Karl Böhm
• Richard Bonynge
• Willi Boskovsky (also famous as a violinist)
• Pierre Boulez
• Sir Adrian Boult
• Lord Benjamin Britten (more famous as a composer)
• Max Bruch (better known as a composer)
• Frans Bruggen (also famous as a recorder player)
• Adolf Busch
• Fritz Busch

C

• Oleg Caetani
• Sarah Caldwell
• Guido Cantelli
• Felix Carrasco
• Sergiu Celibidache
• Riccardo Chailly
• Stuart Challender
• William Christie
• Myung-Whun Chung
• André Cluytens
• Aaron Copland (more famous as a composer)
• Robert Craft
• Jose Cura (better known as a singer)

D

• Sir Andrew Davis
• Sir Colin Davis
• Victor De Sabata
• Odaline de la Martinez
• Dean Dixon
• Christoph von Dohnanyi
• Plácido Domingo (better known as a tenor)
• Antal Doráti
• Riccardo Drigo
• Charles Dutoit

E

• Christoph Eschenbach

F

• Frederick Fennell
• Franco Ferrara
• Arthur Fiedler
• Mikko Franck
• Louis Frémaux
• Ferenc Fricsay
• Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos
• Wilhelm Furtwängler

G

• Lamberto Gardelli
• Sir John Eliot Gardiner
• Gianandrea Gavazzeni
• Gianluigi Gelmetti
• Valery Gergiev
• Carlo Maria Giulini
• Jane Glover
• Nicolai Golovanov
• Sir Eugene Goossens
• Vittorio Gui

H

• Hartmut Haenchen
• Emmanuelle Haïm
• Bernard Haitink
• Sir Charles Hallé
• Vernon Handley
• Nikolaus Harnoncourt
• Sir Hamilton Harty
• Sir Bernard Heinze
• Walter Hendl
• Philippe Herreweghe
• Richard Hickox
• Christopher Hogwood (also harpsichordist)
• Jascha Horenstein

I

• Eliahu Inbal
• Hiroyuki Iwaki

J

• Isaiah Jackson
• René Jacobs (formerly a counter-tenor)
• Mariss Jansons
• Neeme Järvi
• Graeme Jenkins
• Eugen Jochum

K

• Robert Kajanus
• Tõnu Kaljuste
• Okko Kamu
• Shigeru Kan-no
• Herbert von Karajan
• Joseph Keilberth
• Rudolf Kempe
• Istvan Kertesz
• Carlos Kleiber
• Erich Kleiber
• Otto Klemperer
• Paul Kletzki
• Zoltán Kocsis
• Kiril Kondrashin
• Franz Konwitschny
• Serge Koussevitzky
• Henry Krips
• Josef Krips
• Rafael Kubelik
• Sigiswald Kuijken
• Efrem Kurtz

L

• Erich Leinsdorf
• Gilbert Levine
• James Levine
• Raymond Leppard
• Andrew Litton
• Jesus Lopez Cobos

M

• Peter Maag
• Lorin Maazel
• Sir Charles Mackerras
• Zdenek Macal
• Gustav Mahler (a famous conductor and composer)
• Sir Neville Marriner
• Jean Martinon
• Eduardo Marturet
• Kurt Masur
• Eduardo Mata
• Lovro von Matacic
• Henry Mayer
• Zubin Mehta
• Amos Meller
• Willem Mengelberg
• Lord Yehudi Menuhin (more famous as a violinist)
• Dimitri Mitropoulos
• Francesco Molinari-Pradelli
• Evgeny Mravinsky
• Pierre Monteux
• Karl Muck
• Charles Munch
• Riccardo Muti

N

• Kent Nagano
• Václav Neumann
• Yannick Nézet-Séguin
• Sir Roger Norrington
• Jens Nygaard

O

• Karl Österreicher
• Sakari Oramo
• Eugene Ormandy
• Seiji Ozawa

P

• Paul Paray
• Tibor Paul
• Rudolf Pekarek
• Christof Perick
• Libor Pesek
• Trevor Pinnock
• Mikhail Pletnev (also famous as a pianist)
• Joseph Post
• Georges Pretre
• André Previn
• Sir John Pritchard

Q

• Helen Quach

R

• Beat Raaflaub
• Ezra Rachlin
• Sir Simon Rattle
• Fritz Reiner
• Hans Richter
• Karl Richter
• Fritz Rieger
• Helmuth Rilling
• Stanford Robinson
• Artur Rodzinski
• Hans Rosbaud
• Mstislav Rostropovich (also famous as a cellist)
• Witold Rowicki
• Gennady Rozhdestvensky
• Max Rudolf
• John Rutter

S

• Esa-Pekka Salonen
• Kurt Sanderling
• Michele Santorsola
• Jukka-Pekka Saraste
• Sir Malcolm Sargent
• Wolfgang Sawallisch
• Claudio Scimone (founder and leader of Solisti Veneti)
• Hermann Scherchen
• Thomas Schippers
• Ole Schmidt
• Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt
• Carl Schuricht
• Gerard Schwarz
• Leif Segerstam
• Tullio Serafin
• Robert Shaw
• Nathaniel Shillkret
• Maxim Shostakovich
• Constantin Silvestri
• Giuseppe Sinopoli
• Stanislaw Skrowaczewski
• Felix Slatkin
• Leonard Slatkin
• Václav Smetacek
• Sir Georg Solti
• Sir William Southgate
• William Steinberg
• Markus Stenz
• Leopold Stokowski
• Richard Strauss (more famous as a composer)
• Igor Stravinsky (more famous as a composer)
• Gustave Strube
• Masaaki Suzuki
• Evgeny Svetlanov
• Hans Swarowsky
• George Szell

T

• Václav Talich
• Muhai Tang
• Jeffrey Tate
• Vilem Tausky
• Yuri Temirkanov
• Klaus Tennstedt
• Michael Tilson Thomas
• Patrick Thomas
• Bryden Thompson
• Georg Tintner
• Arturo Toscanini

W

• Edo de Waart
• Richard Wagner (more famous as a composer)
• Bruno Walter
• Günter Wand
• Felix Weingartner
• Walter Weller
• Franz Welser-Möst
• Sir David Willcocks
• Sir Henry Wood

Y

• Simone Young

Z

• Benjamin Zander
• Hans Zender
• Alberto Zelman
• David Zinman

Especially in opera, many composers were also Direttori.