Yury Ahronovich

Yuri Ahronovich, also known as Georgy Ahronovich, was a conductor of Soviet origin who eventually took Israeli nationality. He was born in Leningrad, now St Petersburg, on 13 May 1932, and his career unfolded across the former Soviet Union, Israel and much of western Europe.

He trained at the Leningrad Conservatory and Central Music School, and completed his studies with Natan Rakhlin and Kurt Sanderling. In 1956 he was appointed director of the Saratov Philharmonic Orchestra, where he also taught and conducted his first operas. The following year he moved on to conduct in Yaroslavl, and in 1964 he took on the principal post of the Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra. As a guest conductor, he also worked with the Bolshoi Ballet.

In 1972 he left the USSR and settled in Israel, where he became a citizen. After concerts with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, he began international tours that took him to London and New York. His Western operatic debut was with Otello in Cologne, the city where he directed the Gürzenich Concerts between 1975 and 1986. In 1974 he appeared at Covent Garden with Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov, a work praised for combining energy and musical clarity. Between 1982 and 1987 he was principal conductor of the Stockholm Symphony Orchestra.

His legacy is associated above all with bringing the Russian repertoire to Western orchestras, in a career that crossed political and cultural borders.