Venezuelan-born French conductor, music critic, and composer; b. Caracas, Aug. 9, 1874; d. Paris, Jan. 28, 1947. Hahn's father, a merchant from Hamburg, settled in Venezuela around 1850. The family moved to Paris when Reynaldo was five years old. He studied singing, and a recording he made in 1910 testifies to his beautiful voice.

Hahn studied theory and composition at the Paris Conservatory, numbering among his teachers the opera composer JULES MASSENET, who had a strong influence on the young musician. Hahn also studied conducting, achieving a high professional standard as an opera conductor. In 1934 he became music critic of Le Figaro.

Hahn remained in France during the Nazi occupation at a considerable risk to his life, because he was Jewish on his father's side. In 1945 he was named a member of the Institut de France and in 1945-46 was music director of the Paris Opéra.

Hahn's music is distinguished by flowing melodies and fine ROMANTIC flair. Socially, he was known in Paris for his brilliant wit. He maintained a passionate youthful friendship with the author Marcel Proust, who portrayed him as a poetic genius in his novel Jean Santeuil. Their intimate correspondence was published in 1946. Hahn was a brilliant journalist, and his articles were published in several collections.

Hahn wrote primarily for the stage, including operas, operettas, incidental music, and ballets. He also composed concertos for violin, piano, and cello, a Piano Quintet and String Quartet, and piano pieces, among them a suite, composed in 1894 called Portraits des peintres (Portraits of painters), inspired by poems of Proust.