Ronald Reagan

“ Then, after a brief stint with the Minneapolis Symphony, Ormandy succeeded the legendary Leopold Stokowski as director of the Philadelphia Orchestra. It would be his true home for the rest of his life. Under the magic of his baton, conductor and orchestra entered the musical pantheon of the United States and of the world. ”

“ He persuaded his musicians to do it his way without taunts or tantrums. They knew how much he loved the music, how much he loved the audiences, and how much he loved them. They could not fail him-they did not. And he never stinted in giving his musicians the credit. "They play," he said once "as one great Stradivarius, not as individual musicians."
It was an accurate description and a supreme tribute from a child prodigy whose musical genius first found expression on the violin-at the age of three! Born in Budapest on November 18, 1899, Eugene Ormandy came to the United States in 1921. ”