Julius Rudel was one of the best-known American conductors and musical administrators mainly associated with operatic performances. As a child, he was deeply attracted to music, regularly attended the Vienna Philharmonic concerts and saw some of the great conductors of the age, including Knappertsbusch, Furtwängler, and Walter. He began his formal studies at the Academy of Music in Vienna. At the time of the Nazi occupation of Austria, he left the country and completed his musical studies at Mannes School of Music in New York, graduating in 1943. He became a naturalized U.S. c...