Julius Rudel (6 March 1921 – 26 June 2014) was an American opera and orchestra conductor. He was born in Vienna and was a student at the city’s Academy of Music. He emigrated to the United States at the age of 17 in 1938 after the country was annexed by Germany. After 1944, he began a 35-year career with that company which continued until 1979. After rising to Principal Conductor and General Director in 1957, he brought the company international acclaim with his innovative programming (including three seasons of all-American operas in 1958, 1959, and 1960), and formed a partnership with Beverly Sills, who became the leading soprano of the NYCO. He led the company to its new home at the New York State Theater in Lincoln Center, where it opened in February 1966 with Alberto Ginastera’s Don Rodrigo, in which he cast an unknown 25-year-old tenor, Plácido Domingo. In 1979, he accepted the position of Music Director of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, succeeding Michael Tilson Thomas and led that orchestra through the 1985 season. Julius Rudel conducted major orchestras and operas throughout the world. Between 1958 and 1963 he conducted frequently for the Philadelphia Lyric Opera Company, also serving as the company’s Artistic Director for part of that time. In 1978, he first conducted at the Metropolitan Opera, making his debut with Werther. He also won a Grammy Award. He was the first Music Director of both Washington’s Kennedy Center and the Wolf Trap Opera Company, and from 1962 to 1976 he was Music Director of the Caramoor Festival. He was a National Patron of Delta Omicron, an international professional music fraternity. In 2009 he was honored by the US National Endowment for the Arts for his many contributions to opera. Julius Rudel died in Manhattan on 26 June 2014.