Arthur Fiedler

Musician and conductor Arthur Fiedler was born on 12/17/1894 in Boston, MA. His family was musically inclined, and he traveled with them to Vienna, Austria, in 1910. The next year he enrolled in the Royal Academy of Music in Berlin and stayed there for four years, studying violin and piano. It was also where he took up conducting. He returned to the US and his hometown of Boston, joining the Boston Symphony Orchestra as a violinist. In 1924 he organized the Boston Sinfonietta, a chamber music group, and toured with them for several years. Five years later he began the Explanade Concerts, a series of free outdoor performances of the Boston Symphony Orchestra , and the next year he became conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra, which consisted of members of the Boston Symphony, and remained its conductor until 1979. Under his leadership the orchestra became one of the most recognizable and popular in the world; Fiedler didn't want it to have the image of a staid, stuffy, stereotypical "long-hair" chamber orchestra, and his innovative programs of classical music, Broadway show tunes, folk songs, the works of contemporary composers and jazz attracted generations of fans, and both the orchestra and Fiedler himself became icons among music fans. They regularly performed concerts on PBS (Public Broadcasting System), attracting a much wider audience than most orchestras ever received. He and the Pops Orchestra were presented with a Peabody Award in 1971 for their performances on educational television. Arthur Fiedler died in Boston, MA, on 7.10,79.