Серджиу Комиссиона: дирижёр и скрипач

Conductor and violinist

Sergiu Comissiona (Hebrew: סרג'ו קומיסיונה; June 16, 1928 – March 5, 2005) was a Romanian Israeli American conductor and violinist.

Born in Bucharest, Romania in a Jewish family, he began violin studies at the age of five, was hired as a violinist by the Romanian State Ensemble while still in his teens, making his conducting debut at the age of 17. In his twenties he was named principal conductor of the Romanian National Opera, which he led from 1955 to 1959.

He premiered and made the first recordings of a number of modern works including symphonies by Allan Pettersson, who dedicated his Symphony No. 9 to him, as well as works by Michael Jeffrey Shapiro and Elie Siegmeister. Comissiona conducted Siegmeister's An Entertainment for Violin, Piano, and Orchestra at the Merriwether Post Pavilion on July 2, 1976 with Ann Saslav, piano, and Isidor Saslav, the BSO's concertmaster, as soloists. The Saslavs had commissioned the work from Siegmeister. In 1968, Comissiona conducted the first performance of Rued Langgaard's Music of the Spheres in 46 years (since 1922), which ignited a renaissance for Langgaard's music.

Comissiona and his wife became American citizens on July 4, 1976, at a special Bicentennial ceremony at Fort McHenry on Baltimore Harbor. He was a longtime resident of New York City. He died of a heart attack in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma just hours before he was to perform.

He was made a Knight of l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres of France; received a Mus D. honoris causa from the New England Conservatory in Boston, Massachusetts; was an honorary member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music and founder national competition for young American conductors of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.