Ernest Bour

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Ernest Bour (April 20, 1913-June 20, 2001) was a French conductor.

Born in Thionville, Bour studied at both the University and the Conservatoire of Strasbourg. His conducting teachers included Fritz Münch and Hermann Scherchen. After serving as chorus master for the radio choruses of Geneva and Strasbourg, he was appointed conductor of the Orchestre de Mulhouse in 1941. In 1950 he became conductor of the Strasbourg Philharmonic Orchestra and in 1955 of the Strasbourg Opera House. He was principal conductor of the SWF Symphony Orchestra in Baden-Baden from 1964 to 1979.

Bour's repertoire was marked by a concentration on contemporary music. World premières he presided over included works by Bussotti, Ferneyhough, Górecki, Ligeti, Rihm, Stockhausen and Xenakis, and he gave the French premières of Hindemith's Symphony Mathis der Maler and Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress.

Bour died in Strasbourg, aged 88.

Preceded by Hans Rosbaud

Principal conductors, Southwest German Radio Symphony Orchestra 1964–1979

Succeeded by Kazimierz Kord