Othmar Mága

Othmar Mága (30 June 1929 – 28 January 2020) was a German conductor, who was chief conductor internationally, including the Odense Symphony Orchestra in Denmark and the KBS Symphony Orchestra in Korea.

Among his many recordings are several rarely played concertos for instruments such as horn and double bass, including works of the 20th century.

Mága was born in 1929 in Brno, Czechoslovakia, to German-Hungarian parents.

He studied violin, conducting and composing in Stuttgart (1948–52), and musicology and German literature at the University of Tübingen (1952–58).

He studied conducting further, with Paul van Kempen (1954–55), Ferdinand Leitner (opera) and Sergiu Celibidache (1960–62).

Mága was chief conductor of the Göttinger Symphonie Orchester (1963–67) and of the Nürnberger Symphoniker (1968–70).

He then became Generalmusikdirektor (GMD) of the Bochumer Symphoniker and professor at the Folkwang-Hochschule in Essen, where he taught to 1982.

From 1983 until 1987, Mága was chief conductor of the Orchestra I Pomeriggi Musicali in Milan, then of the Odense Symphony Orchestra, and from 1992 until end of 1996 chief conductor of the KBS Symphony Orchestra, the orchestra of the Korean Broadcasting System.

After sixty years of conducting Mága's repertoire contained over 2000 works, music from the Renaissance to works by contemporary composers, including several operas.

From 2002 until 2003 he was GMD of the Niederrheinische Sinfoniker at the Theater Krefeld und Mönchengladbach.

Mága died in Kiel on 28 January 2020.