Sergiu Comissiona, 76; Principal Guest Conductor in Jerusalem and at USC

Sergiu Comissiona, principal guest conductor of Israel’s Jerusalem Symphony and USC’s Thornton Symphony, among other orchestras, has died. He was 76.

The Romanian-born conductor died Saturday, apparently of a heart attack, in an Oklahoma City hotel room hours before he was to guest-conduct the city’s philharmonic, officials said.

A familiar presence in Southern California, Comissiona was a candidate to take over the Pacific Symphony after founder Keith Clark’s departure in 1988. (The post went to Carl St.Clair.) He led the Thornton orchestra for half a dozen years, brought his Asian Youth Orchestra to the Hollywood Bowl and served as guest conductor of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and the San Diego Symphony.

Joel Levine, music director of the Oklahoma City Philharmonic and a longtime friend of Comissiona, filled in for him Saturday night.

In the Romanian capital, Bucharest, where Comissiona was born and where he was a permanent guest conductor with the George Enescu Philharmonic, the orchestra’s artistic director, Nicolae Licaret, called his death a “very heavy loss.”

“He had an exceptional relationship with the orchestra and the choir. He was always diversifying the repertoire for the audiences and bringing lesser-known works,” Licaret told Associated Press.

Comissiona began playing violin at age 5, joined an orchestra when he was 10 and made his debut as a conductor at 17. He became principal conductor of the Romanian State Opera when he was in his early 20s.

He immigrated to Israel in the 1950s. He was music director of the Haifa Symphony from 1960 to 1966 and of the Goteborg Symphony in Sweden from 1966 to 1977. He was also chief conductor of the Radio Philharmonic in Hilversum, the Netherlands, starting in 1982.

In the U.S., Comissiona spent from 1969 to 1985 with the Baltimore Symphony, transforming it from a little-known ensemble into a nationally respected orchestra.

“He elevated this orchestra to a level that had never been aspired to, and he created the platform from which to build a world-class orchestra,” John Gidwitz, former Baltimore Symphony Orchestra president, told the Baltimore Sun.

Known for his spontaneity and flair, Comissiona also held music directorships with the Houston and Vancouver symphonies.

He and his wife, the former Robinne Florin, became naturalized U.S. citizens at Ft. McHenry in Baltimore Harbor on July 4, 1976. The couple lived in New York.

“I’m an American conductor, despite my accent,” he told Associated Press in a 1987 interview. “I love French music, German, Russian. I’m very young in this respect; I’m not ashamed of loving music. When I’m doing a moment of ‘Pagliacci,’ I’m ready to jump on the stage to be with them to sing. For me, every note in this opera is still very emotional.”

Former New York City Opera music director Beverly Sills hired Comissiona as something of a fix-it man for her company’s orchestra in 1987. But when she left two years later, he did too.

“I can’t say my plans have been realized. That would be impossible in two years,” he told The Times when he took the New York company’s production of Mozart’s “The Magic Flute” to the Orange County Performing Arts Center near the end of his tenure.

But he added: “Standards of orchestral performance are definitely up. They have improved in the matter of rehearsals, matters of productions, styles, cycles, repertory, and I have paved a way for continuation of these standards.... I am satisfied. I am never happy.”

Comissiona was scheduled to lead the USC Symphony on April 7 at Bovard Auditorium, USC, and on April 8 at the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts.

He is survived by his wife of more than 50 years and a sister, Milly Barbalata.