Atlas, Dalia (née Sternberg)

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Atlas, Dalia (née Sternberg)

Atlas, Dalia (née Sternberg), Israeli conductor; b. Haifa, Nov. 14, 1933. After piano training at the Rubin Academy of Music in Jerusalem (graduated, 1952), she studied conducting with various mentors abroad, including Ferrara, Celibidache, Swarowsky, and Boulez. She was the first woman to obtain prizes in the Cantelli (Novara, 1963), Mitropoulos (N.Y., 1964), and Royal Liverpool Phil. (1964) conducting competitions; she later received the Eugene Ormandy Award (Philadelphia, 1980). In the meantime, she launched her career in her homeland by founding the Israel Pro-Musica Orch.; after joining the faculty of the Technion Inst. of Technology in Haifa, she founded its sym. orch. and choir; later founded the Atlas Camerata, a chamber orch., which she conducted on a world tour in 1991. As a guest conductor, she appeared with major orchs. in Europe, the U.S., and Australia.

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire