Legendary CSO Leader Dies

Musicians remember Holocaust survivor and Highland Park resident Victor Aitay, who performed with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for more than 50 years. He died last week, at age 91.

"We have lost a legend," begins the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's obituary for Victor Aitay, the Highland Park resident and former CSO concertmaster who died last Tuesday. He was 91. Born in Budapest in 1921, Aitay didn't waste any time before jumping into musical training at age 7 when he entered the Franz Liszt Royal Academy, according to the CSO. After receiving an artist's diploma, Aitay became concertmaster of the Hungarian Royal Opera and Philharmonic Orchestra. He also organized the Aitay String Quartet, with which he toured Europe. Though he lost much of his family in the Holocaust, Aitay was one of tens of thousands of Jews who survived because of the efforts of Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg, according to a 2001 Chicago Tribune…

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