Short Biography

André George Previn (born April 6, ca. 1930, Berlin, Germany), is a German-born American Academy and Grammy Award-winning pianist, conductor, and composer. He first came to prominence by arranging and composing Hollywood film scores in 1948. André Previn was born as Andreas Ludwig Priwin to a German Jewish family in Berlin, Germany circa 1929. (Previn himself is unsure in which year he was born, as his birth certificate was lost upon emigration to the United States.) The Priwin family emigrated to the United States in 1939 to escape the Nazi regime in Germany. Andre (as he would be known) became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1943, and grew up in Los Angeles. His elder brother was director Steve Previn. At Andre Previn`s 1946 graduation from Beverly Hills High School he played a musical duet with Richard M. Sherman: Previn played the piano, accompanying Sherman (who played flute). Coincidentally, twenty one years later, both composers won Oscars for different films, both winning in musical categories. In 1967, Previn became music director of the Houston Symphony Orchestra. In 1968, Previn began his tenure as principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO), serving in that post until 1979. During his LSO tenure, he and the LSO appeared on television in the programme André Previn`s Music Night. From 1976 to 1984, Previn was music director of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra (PSO), and in turn had another television series with the PSO titled Previn and the Pittsburgh. He was also principal conductor of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. In 1984, he was named music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

Andre Previn has been married five times. His first three marriages, to Betty Bennett, to Dory Langdon, and then to Mia Farrow, kept him in the public eye. He is the adoptive father of Soon-Yi Previn. After his fourth marriage (to Heather Sneddon in 1982) ended in 2002, Previn wed the German violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter, and later wrote a violin concerto for her. They divorced in 2006. Previn has mentioned in the liner notes of the program printed for his appearance as guest conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra during the 2006–2007 season that his year of birth is 1930, and not 1929 as many sources claim. Previn wrote a memoir of his early years in Hollywood, No Minor Chords, which was published in 1991.

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