American conductor and pianist James Levine was BOTD in 1943. Born in Cincinnati, Ohio to a musical family, he was a child prodigy, making his professional debut as a piano soloist when he was 10. Offered a place at the Juilliard School, his parents elected to keep him in the family home, arranging for regular trips to New York and lessons with teachers. He eventually attended Juilliard in 1961, leaving before graduating to pursue a career as a conductor. In 1971, he made his conducting debut at the Metropolitan Opera of New York, and was appointed principal conductor the following year. He remained at the Met for 47 years, helping it grow into the country’s largest performing arts organisation, expanding its repertoire to include contemporary composers, launching Live From the Met public broadcasts and nurturing the careers of singers Kathleen Battle, Maria Ewing and Plácido Domingo. He also took on directorships of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Munich Philharmonic, and had long-standing associations with most of the world’s major symphony orchestras. His later years were plagued with health problems, requiring a two-year sabbatical from the Met, making a triumphant return in 2013. Levine had a long-term (though sexless) relationship with his assistant Suzanne Thomson, sharing an apartment from the early 1970s and marrying in 2019. His homosexuality was an open secret in musical circles, though he steadfastly refused to discuss his sexual orientation or romantic relationships. Rumours of harassment and sexual assault of younger men trailed him for decades, finally erupting in 2017 when nine men accused him of rape, grooming and sexual abuse over many years, in many cases starting when they were minors. Levine was suspended and subsequently fired by the Met after an investigation concluded he had engaged in “sexually abusive and harassing conduct”. He denied the accusations and sued the Met for breach of contract and defamation, eventually settling out of court in 2019. His career and reputation in tatters, he retired to Palm Springs in California, dying in 2021 aged 77.