Christoph von Dohnányi

Christoph von Dohnányi (born September 8, 1929) is a German conductor of Hungarian ancestry. Dohnányi was born in Berlin, Germany to jurist Hans von Dohnanyi and Christine Bonhoeffer. His uncle on his mother's side was Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a Lutheran pastor and theologian/ethicist. His grandfather was the pianist and composer Ernő Dohnányi. His father, uncle and other family members participated in the German Resistance movement against Nazism an... more

Christoph von Dohnányi (born September 8, 1929) is a German conductor of Hungarian ancestry. Dohnányi was born in Berlin, Germany to jurist Hans von Dohnanyi and Christine Bonhoeffer. His uncle on his mother's side was Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a Lutheran pastor and theologian/ethicist. His grandfather was the pianist and composer Ernő Dohnányi. His father, uncle and other family members participated in the German Resistance movement against Nazism and were arrested and detained in several concentration camps before being executed in 1945, when Christoph was 15 years old. Dohnányi's older brother is Klaus von Dohnanyi, a German politician and former mayor of Hamburg. After the war, Dohnányi studied law in Munich, but in 1948 he transferred to the Hochschule für Musik und Theater München to study composition, piano and conducting. At the opera in Munich, he was a stage extra, coached singers, and was a house pianist. He received the Richard Strauss Prize from the city of Munich, and then... less