George Alexander Albrecht (15 February 1935) is a German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 conductor

Conducting

Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance by way of visible gestures. The primary duties of the conductor are to unify performers, set the tempo, execute clear preparations and beats, and to listen critically and shape the sound of the ensemble...

. His brother Ernst Albrecht is a politician. His son is the conductor Marc Albrecht

Marc Albrecht

Marc Albrecht is a German conductor. He is the son of the conductor George Alexander Albrecht and Corinne Albrecht, formerly a ballet dancer who became a physiotherapist. Albrecht studied music with his father...

.

Albrecht studied violin, piano and composition, and in 1954 and received the Prix d'excellence of the Accademia Chigiana in Siena, Italy. At age 29, he became general music director (GMD) of the Staatsoper Hannover

Staatsoper Hannover

Staatsoper Hannover is an opera house and opera company in Hanover. It is one of the leading opera companies in Germany.During the course of its season from September to June, Staatsoper Hannover mounts productions of a variety of operas from the standard operatic repertoire as well as 20th century...

, at the time the youngest GMD in German history. He concluded his tenure in Hannover with the 1992-1993 season.

From 1990 to 1995, Albrecht was a regular guest conductor of the Semperoper

Semperoper

The Semperoper is the opera house of the Sächsische Staatsoper Dresden and the concert hall of the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden . It is located near the Elbe River in the historic center of Dresden, Germany.The opera house was originally built by the architect Gottfried Semper in 1841...

 in Dresden, where his work included conducting the George Tabori production of Schoenberg's opera Moses und Aron

Moses und Aron

Moses und Aron is a three-act opera by Arnold Schoenberg with the third act unfinished. The German libretto was by the composer after the Book of Exodus.-Compositional history:...

in 1994. He served as general music director of the Deutschen Nationaltheaters Weimar and the Staatskapelle Weimar

Staatskapelle Weimar

The Deutsche Nationaltheater and Staatskapelle Weimar is the most important musical and theatrical venue in Weimar in Germany. It is a twin institution, consisting of the theatrical Deutsches Nationaltheater and the symphony orchestra known as the Staatskapelle Weimar...

 from 1996 to 2002.

Albrecht has championed the music of Wilhelm Furtwängler

Wilhelm Furtwängler

Wilhelm Furtwängler was a German conductor and composer. He is widely considered to have been one of the greatest symphonic and operatic conductors of the 20th century. By the 1930s he had built a reputation as one of the leading conductors in Europe, and he was the leading conductor who remained...

, Hans Pfitzner

Hans Pfitzner

Hans Erich Pfitzner was a German composer and self-described anti-modernist. His best known work is the post-Romantic opera Palestrina, loosely based on the life of the great sixteenth-century composer Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina.-Biography:Pfitzner was born in Moscow, Russia, where his...

, Erwin Schulhoff

Erwin Schulhoff

Erwin Schulhoff was a Czech composer and pianist.-Life:Born in Prague of Jewish-German origin, Schulhoff was one of the brightest figures in a generation of European musicians whose successful careers were prematurely terminated by the rise of the Nazi regime in Germany...

, and Allan Pettersson

Allan Pettersson

Gustav Allan Pettersson was a Swedish composer. Today he is considered one of the most important Swedish composers of the 20th century...

 among others. He holds an honorary professorship at the Hochschule für Musik Franz Liszt, Weimar.

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