Professor Imre Palló

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Professor Imre Pallo

Imre Palló, Chair of Conducting at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, is a renowned conductor whose career spans continents and decades.

Born in Budapest, Hungary in 1941, Palló’s father, Imre Palló Sr., was a leading baritone in the Hungarian State Opera for 50 years, and director of the company for four years. Zoltán Kodály, the Hungarian composer, was an intimate friend of the Palló family and was young Palló's godfather. The composer was very influential in his early musical training and education.

Maestro Palló attended the Budapest Conservatory of Music, majoring in piano, composition and percussion. In 1964, he graduated from the Vienna Academy of Music, where he had studied conducting with Professor Hans Swarowsky. The late Maestro Ferenc Fricsay and Maestro Antal Dorati also took an interest in his musical development at that time.

As a student at the Academy, Imre Palló served as a musical assistant to Herbert von Karajan and Professor Karl Boehm at the Vienna and Salzburg Festivals in addition to conducting the Academy Orchestra.

In 1964, Imre Pallo joined the Wuppertal Opera as conductor and remained with that company until 1968 when he joined the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Duesseldorf.

Maestro Palló made his American debut in 1973 conducting the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. As a result of these performances he was invited to guest conduct the New York City Opera at Lincoln Center and served as one of the principal conductors with that Company for many seasons.

From 1976 through 1991 Imre Palló was the Music Director of the Hudson Valley Philharmonic. Under his leadership the Hudson Valley Philharmonic grew to one of the largest and most successful performing arts organizations in New York State. During Maestro Pallo's tenure, the Hudson Valley Philharmonic received awards from A.S.C.A.P. for adventuresome programming. Under Maestro Palló, the orchestra commissioned works by such renowned American composers as Joan Tower, Meyer Kupferman and Robert Starer.

Imre Palló's guest conducting engagements in the orchestral field have included the National Symphony, Vancouver Symphony, Winnipeg Symphony, Columbus Symphony, Brooklyn Philharmonic, Budapest Symphony Orchestra of the Hungarian Radio and Television, Bayerische Staatskapelle, Lisbon Radio Orchestra, and the Israel Philharmonic.

Operatic guest conducting appearances in the U.S. and Canada include the Connecticut Grand Opera, Portland Opera, Canadian Opera, Cincinnati Opera, Philadelphia Opera, Manitoba Opera, Edmonton Opera, St. Louis Opera, Pittsburgh Opera, Calgary Opera, New Orleans Opera, Cleveland Opera, and of course the New York City Opera. Maestro Pallo toured with such international opera stars as Shirley Verrett and Grace Bumbry at the New Jersey Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and San Francisco Opera.

In 1987, Maestro Palló was named Principal Guest Conductor with the Frankfurt Opera, where he remained until 1991.

After many years of absence, in 1990 Imre Palló returned to Budapest to conduct Manon Lescaut at the Hungarian State Opera which was received with tremendous public and critical acclaim. Since then he has returned to Budapest often to guest conduct the Hungarian State Opera. He also guest conducts frequently at the Leipzig and Weimar Opera Houses. Other exciting guest engagements in the 90’s have included the Berlin State Opera, several productions at the Oslo Opera, and De Vlaamse Opera.

Recent guest conducting commitments included productions in Budapest (an all Gershwin concert with the Budapest Symphony Orchestra of the Hungarian Radio and Television), De Vlaamse Opera (Un Ballo Maschera), Weimar Opera (Parsifal), Michigan Opera (Turandot), Portland Opera (Werther and Otello), Cleveland Opera (Lucia di Lammermoor, Otello and Rigoletto), Pittsburgh Opera (Cosi Fan Tutte), and the New York City Opera (Madama Butterfly and Carmina Burana).

In 1994, Maestro Palló joined the faculty of the prestigious Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana, where he was Chair of the Instrumental Conducting Department. In May 2005 he came to the Conservatorium as a visiting lecturer and joined the faculty as Professor and Chair of Conducting and Opera Production in 2006.

While in Australia, Maestro Palló has conducted concerts with Orchestra Victoria, several opera productions with West Australian Opera and conducted Don Giovanni with Opera Australia in their spring season 2007 in Melbourne.