Collection context
Summary
- Creators:
- Fleischmann, Ernest
- Abstract:
- Ernest Fleischmann (1924-2010) was a German-born conductor and impresario who ran the Los Angeles Philharmonic from 1969-1998 and helped to elevate it to a world-class symphonic orchestra. He was recognized as an accomplished talent scout, recruiting conductors Esa-Pekka Salonen and Gustavo Dudamel to Los Angeles, and was a driving force behind the building of the Walt Disney Concert Hall and the revitalization of the Hollywood Bowl. Fleishmann also served as a consultant to numerous artistic organizations through his agency, Fleischmann Arts. The collection contains materials spanning from his early career in South Africa and with the London Symphony Orchestra, to his tenure with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and later consulting work. Included are administrative files, consulting files, writings, published articles and speeches, correspondence with musicians and composers, awards, and photographs.
- Extent:
- 41.8 linear feet (98 boxes, 2 half boxes, 3 flat boxes, 1 carton)
- Language:
- Materials are primarily in English, some materials in French, German, Russian, Czech, Finnish, Spanish and Italian.
- Preferred citation:
-
[Identification of item], Ernest Fleischmann papers (Collection 2293). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.
Background
- Scope and content:
-
The collection consists primarily of administrative materials related to the lengthy career of former conductor and Executive Director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Ernest Fleischmann. Included are a wealth of business papers from his time with the LA Phil including correspondence with musicians and composers, day books, speeches, musical ephemera, and materials relating to his involvement in numerous competitions and recruitments. Also included are files pertaining to his consulting firm, Fleischmann Arts, in which he worked with musical organizations around the world. In addition, the collection contains a small amount of personal materials such as writings, press, awards, and photographs, as well as materials relating to his early life and career in South Africa in the late 1930s to early 1950s.
- Biographical / historical:
-
Ernest Fleischmann was born on December 7, 1924 in Frankfurt, Germany. As a boy, his Jewish family immigrated to South Africa, following the rise of Nazism. In 1942, at the age of seventeen, he made his debut as a professional conductor as well as a music critic, conducting numerous performances in South Africa. Fleischmann married architect Elsa Leviseur in 1953, and the marriage eventually ended in divorce.
Fleischmann earned an undergraduate degree in accounting from the University of the Witwatersrand and a degree in music from the University of Cape Town in 1954. He held various jobs in music as a conductor and radio producer in South Africa, from 1948-1959, including organizing music for the Johannesburg Festival in 1957. After rejecting an offer from the Cape Town Symphony Orchestra, Fleischmann became the General Manager of the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) in 1959. He left the LSO in 1967 and worked for a short time as the European director of CBS Masterworks Records (1967-1969).
In 1969 Fleischmann became Executive Director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic (LA Phil) and General Director of the Hollywood Bowl. In 1988 he was promoted to Executive Vice-President and Managing Director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association (LAPA), where he remained until his retirement in 1998. During his tenure, Fleischmann more than doubled the pay for musicians and added a summer season at the Hollywood Bowl. In 1985, Fleischmann was named General Administrator and Artistic Director of the Paris Opera. However, he turned down the post soon after. In 1987, Lillian Disney donated $50 million towards the construction of the Frank Gehry-designed Walt Disney Concert Hall which eventually opened in 2003. Fleischmann was in charge of selecting conductors for the LA Phil and brought in Carlo Maria Giulini as conductor from 1978 to 1985, who was later replaced by André Previn. Previn had an ongoing feud with Fleischmann and left at the end of 1989. Fleischmann hired Finnish conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen in 1992 and helped recruit his successor, Venezuelan Gustavo Dudamel, who became the LA Phil's conductor in 2009.
He retired from LAPA in 1998 after a 29-year tenure. From 1998 to 2003, Fleischmann was the artistic director of the Ojai Music Festival, and also started his own consulting agency for musicians, Fleischmann Arts.
On June 13, 2010, Fleischmann died at the age 85 in Los Angeles. He was survived by his three children, Jessica, Stephanie, and Martin.
- Acquisition information:
- Gift of Stephanie, Jessica, and Martin Fleischmann, 2015 and 2016.
- Processing information:
-
Processed by Courtney Dean, Kuhelika Ghosh, and Sabrina Ponce, 2018.
Boxes 1-16 were processed by a third-party working with Ernest Fleischmann before his death.
Collections are processed to a variety of levels depending on the work necessary to make them usable, their perceived user interest and research value, availability of staff and resources, and competing priorities. Library Special Collections provides a standard level of preservation and access for all collections and, when time and resources permit, conducts more intensive processing. These materials have been arranged and described according to national and local standards and best practices.
We are committed to providing ethical, inclusive, and anti-racist description of the materials we steward, and to remediating existing description of our materials that contains language that may be offensive or cause harm. We invite you to submit feedback about how our collections are described, and how they could be described more accurately, by filling out the form located on our website: Report Problematic Content and Description in UCLA's Library Collections and Archives.
- Arrangement:
-
This collection has been arranged in the following series:
- Series 1: Early life, 1935-1975
- Series 2: Los Angeles Philharmonic, 1970-2010
- Subseries 2.1: Administrative files, 1988-2010
- Subseries 2.2: Correspondence and subject files, 1980-2008
- Subseries 2.3: Programming and publicity materials, 1970-2010
- Series 3: Fleischmann Arts, 1992-2010
- Subseries 3.1: Consultancies and administrative materials, 1992-2008
- Subseries 3.2 Ojai Festival, 1996-2007
- Subseries 3.3. Colburn Foundation, 1998-2010
- Series 4: Writings and personal materials, 1960-2010
- Physical / technical requirements:
-
CONTAINS AUDIO MATERIALS: This collection contains processed audio materials. All requests to access digital materials must be made in advance using the request button located on this page.
- Physical location:
- Stored off-site. All requests to access special collections material must be made in advance using the request button located on this page.
- Rules or conventions:
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Access and use
- Restrictions:
-
Open for research. All requests to access special collections materials must be made in advance using the request button located on this page.
- Terms of access:
-
Copyright to portions of this collection has been assigned to the UCLA Library Special Collections. The library can grant permission to publish for materials to which it holds the copyright. All requests for permission to publish must be submitted in writing to Library Special Collections. Credit shall be given as follows: The Regents of the University of California on behalf of the UCLA Library Special Collections.
- Preferred citation:
-
[Identification of item], Ernest Fleischmann papers (Collection 2293). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.
- Location of this collection:
-
A1713 Charles E. Young Research LibraryBox 951575Los Angeles, CA 90095-1575, US
- Contact:
- (310) 825-4988