Milton Katims was an American violist and conductor.
18 Facts About Milton Katims
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Milton Katims was music director of the Seattle Symphony for 22 years.
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Milton Katims expanded the orchestra's series of family and suburban outreach concerts.
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Milton Katims is known for his numerous transcriptions and arrangements for viola.
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Milton Katims's parents were from Russia and the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
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Milton Katims's father changed the family surname from Katimsky some years after he arrived in New York.
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Milton Katims started as a violinist but the Belgian-born violist, conductor and educator Leon Barzin advised him to switch to viola.
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Milton Katims played with a number of chamber music ensembles, including the New York Piano Quartet, and was an extra violist with the notable Budapest String Quartet with which he collaborated for 15 years and made six highly regarded recordings, beginning in 1941.
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Milton Katims played at various festivals like the Casals Festival in Puerto Rico.
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Milton Katims gave viola master classes in China and Israel, taught at various colleges such as Juilliard in New York and Northwestern in suburban Chicago, as well as the University of Washington, and transcribed and edited viola music.
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Milton Katims joined the NBC Symphony Orchestra in 1943, replacing the well-known William Primrose on the first-desk of the section.
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Milton Katims conducted orchestras such as the New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Boston Symphony, London Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra and Montreal Symphony.
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Milton Katims organized a series of chamber music concerts titled Candlelight Musicales, in the Spanish Ballroom of the Olympic Hotel, with visiting soloists such as violinist Isaac Stern, cellist Leonard Rose and pianists Leon Fleisher and Claudio Arrau.
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Milton Katims's leadership was crucial in securing public money for the project, the auditorium destined to be shared by Seattle Opera and Pacific Northwest Ballet as well as the Seattle Symphony.
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In 1966, Milton Katims was named Seattle's 'First Citizen' by the Seattle Real Estate Board, and his portrait was featured on the cover of the Seattle telephone book.
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From 1976 to 1985 Milton Katims served as artistic director of the University of Houston School of Music.
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Milton Katims's influence enabled the school to attract and hire several notable musicians, such as Carlisle Floyd, Elena Nikolaidi, and Abbey Simon, to the faculty.
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Milton Katims died in Shoreline, Washington in 2006, aged 96.