Description

FRANCIS AKOS (BUDAPEST, HUNGARY, 30 MARCH, 1922 – MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, UNITED STATES, 28 JANUARY, 2016)

 

 

 

 

A native of Budapest, Hungary, Akos, studied at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music with Béla Bartók, Zoltán Kodály, Leó Weiner, Imre Waldbauer, and Ede Zathureczky. He received his artist’s diploma in performance as well as a teacher’s diploma. As best of his class, Akos won both the Jenő Hubay prize and the Reményi Prize (a violin made especially for the winner of the competition) in the same year. Just before World War II, he formed a trio with cellist János Starker and pianist György Sebök (forty years later in December 1980, the three performed a reunion concert in Chicago).

After surviving the Holocaust (a brief interview from 1990 in which he describes his immediate postwar months is available here), Akos served as concertmaster of the Budapest Symphony Orchestra and later of the Hungarian Royal Opera and Philharmonic orchestras, the youngest person ever to hold these posts. After leaving Hungary, he was concertmaster of the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra in Sweden and then of the Städtishce Oper (now the Deutsche Oper Berlin).

In 1954, Akos immigrated to the United States, where he performed at the Aspen Music Festival and with the Minneapolis Symphony (now the Minnesota Orchestra) under Antal Doráti before joining the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 1955. He appeared as soloist with the Orchestra on numerous occasions, under music directors Reiner, Sir Georg Solti, and Daniel Barenboim, as well as with Carlo Maria Giulini, Gennady Rozhdestvensky, and János Ferencsik, among others.

Akos founded and led the Chicago Strings, a chamber ensemble comprised of CSO musicians; was leader of the Old Town Chamber Music Series; served as music director of the Fox River Valley Symphony in Aurora; and was conductor of the Chicago Heights Symphony Orchestra. As founding music director of the Highland Park Strings, he led that ensemble for twenty-eight years.

Akos is survived by two daughters, Kate Akos (Harry Jacobs) of San Francisco, California, and Judy Akos Berkowitz (Dennis Berkowitz) of Edina, Minnesota, and beloved grandchildren Justin and Melissa. Services will be private and plans for a public memorial will be announced at a later date. The family asks that any gifts of remembrance be made to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Highland Park Strings, or the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

At the time of his retirement in 2003, Akos reflected on his years with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra: “For more than half my life, I have lived in Chicago as a member of the world’s greatest orchestra. The music, the composers, the conductors, and the soloists have inspired me. I am especially grateful to have been blessed with the inspiration I have received from my CSO colleagues during my professional life.”

 

 

TRACKLIST

 

 

Francis Akos, The Chicago Strings – The Chicago Strings Under The Direction Of Francis Akos

Label: Pirouette – JAS 19024

Format: Vinyl, LP, Stereo

Genre: Classical

Don Quixote Suite

Composed By – Telemann

A2 Five Minuets & Six Trios

Composed By – Schubert

B1 Adagio For Strings

Composed By – Barber

B2 Italian Serenade

Composed By – Wolf

B3 Waltz From Serenade For Strings

Composed By – Tchaikowsky

Conductor [Director] – Francis Akos

 

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Air a. d. Suite D-dur. (Bach) Telefunken A 11159 36409

Ave Maria (Schubert) Tiana Lemnitz (soprano) Telefunken GF.63018

Solvejg’s Lied aus Peer Gynt (Grieg) Telefunken A 11187 36407

Träumerei aus Kinderscenen (Schumann) Telefunken A 11187 36406

Xerxes (Handel) Largo Telefunken A 11159 364058