Sergiu Celibidache

Person · Male

Sergiu Celibidache

Romanian conductor

From
Roman, Romania
Active
1912–1996
Releases
114
  • classical

About

Sergiu Celibidache (Romanian: [ˈserd͡ʒju t͡ʃelibiˈdake]; 11 July [O.S. 28 June] 1912 – 13 August 1996) was a Romanian conductor, composer, musical theorist, and teacher. Educated in his native Romania, and later in Paris and Berlin, Celibidache's career in music spanned over five decades, including tenures as principal conductor of the Munich Philharmonic, the Berlin Philharmonic, the RAI National Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre de Radio France, the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and many other European orchestras such as the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Danish National Symphony Orchestra or the London Symphony Orchestra.

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Considering teaching as one of the most important activities, he taught music and musical phenomenology at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena, Italy as well as at Mainz University in Germany, at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, at the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival in Germany and towards the end at the Schola Cantorum in Paris.
Celibidache categorically refused to release his performances on commercial recordings during his lifetime, claiming that a listener could not have a "transcendental experience" outside the concert hall. Many of the recordings of his performances were released posthumously. He has nonetheless earned international acclaim for his interpretations of the classical repertoire and was known for a spirited performance style informed by his study and experiences in Zen Buddhism. He is regarded as one of the greatest conductors of the 20th century.

From Sergiu Celibidache on Wikipedia, under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Discography

Albums 56
Live 38
Compilations 18
Other 2

Links

Conductor position

Teacher

Tags

  • conductor
  • buddhist
  • romanian
  • romanian conductor
  • zen buddhist

Identifiers

ISNI
0000000110845646

Data from MusicBrainz, saved 6 Nov 2026. Photo from Wikimedia Commons, covers from the Cover Art Archive and Apple Music.