Walter Hendl

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Walter Hendl (born 12 January 1917) is an American conductor.

He was born in West New York, New Jersey. He studied with Fritz Reiner at the Curtis Institute, then taught at Sarah Lawrence College from 1939 to 1941. In 1941-2 he was a pianist and conductor at the Berkshire Music Center under Serge Koussevitzky. In 1945 he became associate conductor of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. In 1949 he was appointed conductor of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, and from 1958 to 1964 he was associate conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. He was also active with the Symphony of the Air and conducted its 1955 tour of East Asia. From 1964 to 1972 Hendl served as director of the Eastman School of Music at Rochester, New York, and was also musical adviser to the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra and its part-time conductor.

In 1976 Hendl was appointed music director of the Erie Philharmonic Orchestra, and in 1990 he became professor of conducting at Mercyhurst College in Erie. An advocate of contemporary music, he conducted the premieres of Peter Mennin's Symphony no 3 (with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra in 1947), Martinů's Piano Concerto no 3 (with Rudolf Firkušný and the Dallas Symphony Orchestra in 1949) and Villa-Lobos's Cello Concerto no 2 (with Parisot and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra in 1954), as well as the American premiere of Kabalevsky's Requiem (with students of the Eastman School in 1965). He composed incidental music for various stage productions and made several orchestral transcriptions.

He has also made best-selling recordings, such as violin concertos featuring Jascha Heifetz.