Ľudovít Rajter
Ľudovít Rajter (Lajos Rayter; 30 July 1906, Pezinok, Slovakia – 6 July 2000, Bratislava, Slovakia) was a Slovak composer and conductor of ethnic Hungarian origin. The Rayter family immigrated to Hungary from South-Germany, but were of Dutch origin. Since 1740, according to LR the family became Hungarian.
Rajter got his first musical education at the Town School of Music in Bratislava, where he studied with Alexander Albrecht. From 1920, he studied piano with Frico Kafenda and cello with Rudolf Rupník at the School of Music for Slovakia in Bratislava. After finishing this school, in 1924, his education continued at the Hochschule für Musik und darstellende Kunst in Vienna. In Vienna, he further studied cello and also composition for Franz Schmidt and conducting.
He moved, in 1929, to Bratislava and started teaching at the Town School of Music. During teaching he also studied composition with Ernő Dohnányi in Budapest. In 1933, he became the first conductor of the Symphony Orchestra of the Hungarian Radio in Budapest. A year later after leaving this post in 1945, he became the conductor-in-chief of the Symphony Orchestra of the Czechoslovak Radio in Bratislava. In 1949, he co-founded the Slovak Philharmonic and became its first director until 1952 and then again from 1953 to 1961.