Abstract

The audience for classical music is declining, according to data from the National Endowment for the Arts. In the face of such challenges, aspiring music professionals may find inspiration in the musicological illumination of pertinent historical case studies. This paper offers one such example via a foundational exploration of the musical career of Hungarian American violinist, conductor, and composer Frederic Balazs. Though lacking any dedicated scholarly literature to speak of, Balazs’s legacy as the first full-time conductor of the Tucson Symphony Orchestra (TSO) from 1952 to 1966 included establishing arts organizations and nourishing the classical tradition at its very grass roots. Balazs’s achievements met with enduring success. He elevated the TSO’s quality and founded the Tucson Civic Chorus via a landmark performance of Franz Liszt’s oratorio Christus. Balazs demonstrated the feasibility of civic opera in a brilliant miniature production of Modest Musorgsky’s Boris Godunov. He also established the Tucson Youth Symphony and expanded the TSO’s children’s concerts to include as many as twenty thousand children each year. Ultimately, Balazs’s efforts represent the performing musician as a civil servant engaged in benefiting the community, indicating a replicable pathway for emerging music professionals today.

Degree

MA

College and Department

Fine Arts and Communications; Music

Rights

https://lib.byu.edu/about/copyright/

Date Submitted

2026-04-22

Document Type

Thesis

Keywords

Frederic Balazs, Franz Liszt, Modest Musorgsky, Tucson Symphony Orchestra, Tucson Civic Chorus, Tucson Youth Symphony, Arizona Opera, music entrepreneurship, Hungary, composers, conductors, audiences

Language

english

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