Trivia

Conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra from 1984 to 2002.

His parents and other family members were active in the opposition to the Nazi party.

Began piano lessons as a boy, but his studies were interrupted by World War II.

He returned to West Germany in 1952 and started his career as an assistant to Georg Solti at the Frankfurt Opera. After Solti's departure in 1968, Dohnanyi succeeded him in Frankfurt.

His paternal grandfather, Ernst von Dohnanyi, was the well-known Hungarian composer.

Upon journeying to the United States, he studied composition with his grandfather Ernst von Dohnanyi at Florida State University, and conducting with Leonard Bernstein at Massachusetts' Tanglewood.

He studied law at the University of Munich, but transferred to Munich's Hochschule für Musik for compositions and conducting.

He is the recipient of the Bartók medal in Hungary.

A member of the Order of Arts and Letters of France.

From 1997 to 2008, he was the principal conductor of the Philharmonia Orchestra in London.

He has been awarded honorary doctorates of music from the Eastman School of Music, Oberlin Conservatory of Music, Cleveland Institute of Music, Kent State University, Case Western Reserve Universityand London's Royal Academy of Music.

As a guest conductor, he led ensembles such as the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, Vienna State Opera, and Vienna Philharmonic, the Zurich Opera, and the Orchestre de Paris, of which he was principal guest conductor.