Paul Vermel (1924-2024) was an orchestra director, music educator, and professor emeritus at the University of Illinois. Vermel was born in Paris, France in 1924. His parents, Naoum Vermel and Marguerite Amirian Vermel, had previously fled Russia during the 1917 Revolution. As a young child, he studied organ with Andre Fleury and both composition and harmony with Andre Cluytens and Paul Kletzki. Vermel's studies were interrupted by the German occupation of Paris during World War II.
In 1949, he traveled to America and enrolled at the Juilliard School. After studying with Jean Morel, Vermel joined the Juilliard faculty, conducting the orchestra and opera orchestra. Throughout the 1950s, Vermel conducted several New York ensembles including the Hudson Valley Symphony, the Doctor's Orchestral Society, and the Brooklyn Community Orchestra. Vermel also made his Broadway debut in 1954 as the assistant conductor for Gian Carlo Menotti's Saint of Bleecker Street. In that same year, he became an American citizen and was honored by then-president Dwight Eisenhower for his contributions to American music. At this time he was married to his first wife, Ann Nelson Vermel, with whom he had a daughter, Valerie.
In the early 1960s, Vermel became the conductor of the Fresno Youth Orchestra in Fresno, California. In 1966, he moved to Maine, eventually conducting the Portland Symphony Orchestra. He would serve as the conductor for this ensemble from 1967 to 1975. He was awarded an honorary Doctorate in fine arts from Nasson College in 1975. In 1974, Vermel accepted a professorship at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, conducting both the University Symphony Orchestra and the Champaign-Urbana Symphony. In 1978, he met and married his second wife, Carolyn Paulin. He retired from the University of Illinois in 1994. Following this, he moved to Chicago, where he conducted the Northwest Symphony Orchestra until 2013 and the North Suburban Symphony until 2007.
Vermel was the recipient of the Koussevitsky Memorial Award at the Tanglewood Festival, the American Symphony Orchestra League's Recognition Award, a Ford Foundation grant, an ASCAP award, and the Max Rudolf Award from the Conductor's Guild. Vermel died in Portland, Maine at the age of 99.
Sources:Vermel Obituary: https://www.hobbsfuneralhome.com/obituary/paul-vermel
Celebration of Life Program Book, 2024.
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