At the invitation of its conductor, Arturo Toscanini, Maazel guest-conducted the NBC Symphony Orchestra in 1941. He was 11 years old.

Became conductor of the New York Philharmonic in 2002.

He was conductor of the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra from 1965 to 1971.

He was conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra from 1972 to 1982.

He was General Manager and Artistic Director of the Vienna State Opera Orchestra from 1982 to 1984.

He studied briefly with renowned conductor Pierre Monteux in the 1940s.

His father was Lincoln Maazel, an actor and singer, was born in 1903, died in 2009, at age 106, on Lorin Maazel's Castleton, Virginia farm.

His mother was Marion "Marie" Shulman Maazel, was born in 1894, and died in 1992, at age 98, and was the founder of the Pittsburgh Youth Symphony Orchestra.

Lorin Maazel attended the Fanny Edel Falk Laboratory School at the University of Pittsburgh as a child, then the Peabody High School (in Pennsylvania) and on to the University of Pittsburgh.

His grandfather, Isaac was a violinist with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra for twenty years.

His parents were American music students who were studying in Paris at the time of his birth. He began piano lessons at age 5 and violin at 7.