Werner Torkanowsky

Werner Torkanowsky (March 30, 1926 - October 20, 1992) was a German-American conductor, composer and violinist.

Career Torkanowsky was born in Berlin, Germany. His parents immigrated to Israel when he was 6 years old where they raised Torkanowsky on a kibbutz.

From 1963 to 1977, Torkanowsky was music director and chief conductor of the New Orleans Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra. He also conducted performances of Arrigo Boito's Mefistofele with Norman Treigle, for the San Diego Opera (1973) and Seattle Opera (1974). In 1981, he was named director and chief conductor of the Bangor Symphony Orchestra in Maine, where he remained until he succumbed to cancer on October 20, 1992 in Bar Harbor, Maine, at the age of sixty-six. Following his death, the Symphony published a double Compact Disc set of various performances dating from 1989 to 1992.

His son, David Torkanowsky, is a jazz performer in New Orleans.