Georg Solti

Sir Georg Solti was a renowned orchestra and opera conductor, best known as the music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, who set a since-surpassed record by winning 31 Grammy Awards. He was born György Stern in Budapest, Hungary (his Germanic last named was changed under the country's post-World War One "Hungarianization" policy) into a Jewish family. His mother had a musical background and the young Georg would accompany his sister, who was encouraged to sing by their mother, on piano. When he was 10 years old, he began his musical education at Budapest's Ernö Fodor School of Music before transferring to the Franz Liszt Academy, which was more highly regarded, with a faculty that included Béla Bartók and Zoltán Kodály. At the age of 12, a performance of Ludwig van Beethoven's Fifth instilled in him the desire to conduct an orchestra. He had to finance his own further musical education from the age of 13 on by providing piano instruction. He graduated in 1930 and became a mem