Antonio de Almeida (20 January 1928 – 18 February 1997) was a French conductor and musicologist of Portuguese-American descent.
When his family moved to Buenos Aires he studied with Alberto Ginastera,[1] and he had the opportunity to hear performances conducted by notable European refugees at the Teatro Colón.
During his student days, he played first horn at Tufts College, first bassoon at Harvard, oboe with the Wellesley Orchestra, clarinet at MIT and the cello at Yale.
He was principal guest conductor of the Houston Symphony (1969–1971) and then music director of the Orchestre philharmonique de Nice (1971–1978).
He led the Symphony of the Air in a concert version of Christoph Willibald Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice.
[3] He made numerous recordings, specializing in French operas such as Ambroise Thomas' Mignon and Hamlet, and Fromental Halévy's La Juive.
[3] His recordings were instrumental in restoring compositions of Ernest Chausson, Henri Duparc, Florent Schmitt and Jules Massenet to the active repertory.
With the Moscow Symphony he recorded orchestral works of, among others, Charles Tournemire, Henri Sauguet, and Gian Francesco Malipiero.
He made numerous discoveries including previously unknown arias and a second-act finale for La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein.