Klaro Mizerit

Mizerit, Klaro

Klaro (Maria) Mizerit,. Conductor, composer, b Monfalcone, Italy, 12 Aug 1914 of Slovenian parents, naturalized Canadian 1973, d Halifax, 3 Jan 2007. Klaro Mizerit studied violin, conducting, and composition 1941-8, receiving diplomas from the academies of music of Ljubljana and Vienna. While engaged as a violinist with the Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra he was the founder and first violin of the Slovenian String Quartet and taught at the Ljubljana Academy of Music. He was chief conductor of the Dubrovnik Festival Orchestra 1951-8 and the Rhenish Philharmonic Orchestra in Koblenz, Germany, 1958-68. Mizerit moved to Halifax in 1968 as music director of the newly formed Atlantic Symphony Orchestra and also that year founded the Atlantic Choir and the Atlantic Chamber Orchestra, serving as conductor of both. During nine seasons with the orchestra he conducted almost 700 concerts throughout the region, many of them for schools, and performed over 100 Canadian works, 8 of them premieres, including his own Two Maritime Aquarelles (1970, based on songs in the Helen Creighton collection) and Maritime Suite (1975). Other compositions by Klaro Mizerit include five symphonies, a string quartet, a cantata, and a variety of shorter works. He was co-director of the Pierre Monteux Summer School in Hancock, Maine, 1969-78 and a guest lecturer at Michigan State University. Mizerit was director of the Maritime Conservatory of Music 1977-89. He has guest conducted orchestras in 17 countries on four continents, and has made recordings with the Rhenish Philharmonic Orchestra (1966, Garnet 40 139) and the Atlantic Symphony Orchestra. Mizeret continued to compose and guest conduct after his retirement in 1989.