**Maurice Abravanel** (January 6, 1903 – September 22, 1993)[]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurice_Abravanel#cite_note-Harvard_Bio-1) was an [American](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_of_America) classical music [conductor](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conductor_(music)). He is remembered as the conductor of the [Utah Symphony](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utah_Symphony) for over 30 years.Abravanel was born in [Salonika](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salonika), [Rumelia Eyalet](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rumelia_Eyalet), [Ottoman Empire](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottoman_Empire) (modern [Thessaloniki, Greece](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thessaloniki,_Greece)). He came from an illustrious [Sephardic](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sephardic) [Jewish](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish) family, which was expelled from [Spain](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spain) in 1492 (see [Isaac Abrabanel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Abrabanel)). Abravanel's ancestors settled in Salonika in 1517, and his parents were both born there. In 1909, the Abravanel family moved to [Lausanne](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lausanne), Switzerland, where his father, Edouard de Abravanel, was a successful [pharmacist](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pharmacist).