André Previn

A popular and gifted composer and conductor who enjoyed success in multiple mediums, Andre Previn won four Best Music Oscars for "My Fair Lady" (1964), among others, before embarking on a lengthy second career as a conductor for some of the world's most acclaimed symphony orchestras. Born Andreas Ludwig Previn on April 6, 1929, in Berlin, Germany, he was the son of an amateur pianist and showed remarkable aptitude, as well as perfect pitch, before the age of six years old. He was soon enrolled at the Berlin Conservatory, but the rise of the Nazis spurred his family, who were Jewish, to relocate to Paris, France. There, Previn studied at the Paris Conservatory before moving again, this time to the United States, where they settled in New York City and later, Los Angeles, California. There, he became a U.S. citizen in 1943, and supported the family by playing in jazz clubs at an movie houses. He also learned English through comic books and movies, and the latter medium provided Previn with his first entry into professional music. His father's second cousin, Charles Previn, was the music director for Universal Studios, and while Previn was still a student at Beverly Hills High School, he began working as a composer, conductor and arranger for MGM. He earned his first screen credit as composer for "The Sun Comes Up" (1949), a vehicle for canine star Lassie, but after serving in the U.S. Army in 1950, returned to Hollywood, where he worked his way up to composing, conducting and arranging for such prestige pictures as "Gigi" (1958) and "Porgy & Bess" (1959), for which he won his first of four eventual Academy Awards. During this period, Previn also recorded numerous jazz albums, both as performer and arranger, and collaborated with the likes of Ella Fitzgerald, Dizzy Gillespie and Shorty Rogers. At the height of his success in Hollywood, with two more Oscars to his name for "Irma la Douce" (1963) and "My Fair Lady" (1964), Previn decided to dream of conducting for orchestra, and joined the St. Louis Symphony in 1963. Four years later, he was selected to conduct the Houston Symphony Orchestra, but left in 1968 to become principal conductor for the London Symphony, and remained there for the next 11 years. During this period, Previn's music career threatened to be overshadowed by his personal life: he had become romantically involved with actress Mia Farrow while still married to singer Dory Previn, and the Previns' subsequent divorce, coupled with Dory Previn's hospitalization for a mental breakdown, lent a patina of scandal to his marriage to Farrow in 1970. The couple would remain together for the next nine years, producing two children and adopting three more, including a Korean girl named Soon-Yi,who would generate her own scandal decades later by becoming romantically involved with Farrow's significant other, Woody Allen. Despite the negative attention, Previn remained a popular figure in the classical music world and other mediums: he was the star of a series of well-regarded music programs made by BBC Television during his tenure with the London Symphony, and his subsequent efforts as musical director and/or principal conductor for the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and Los Angeles Philharmonic drew sizable audience numbers. Previn also wrote and recorded numerous musical works, ranging from symphonies and concerts for cello, guitar and violin to orchestral works, the musical "Coco," about designer Coco Chanel in 1970, and an opera based on "A Streetcar Named Desire" which debuted in 1998. After serving as orchestral director of the Oslo Philharmonic from 2002 to 2006, Previn wrote a second opera, based on the 1945 film "Brief Encounter," which premiered in 2009. He continued to remain active during the final years of his life, balancing conducting assignments with lifetime achievement awards from the Kennedy Center Honors and Recording Academy, among others. He also worked extensively with the violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter, to whom he was married from 2002 to 2006. Previn died at his home in Manhattan on February 28, 2019 at the age of 89.