Milton Katims was an American conductor, musician, educator, and music director of the Seattle Symphony Orchestra (1954-76). During his 22 years with the Seattle Symphony, he transformed what was a small, part-time community ensemble, into a serious, respected, professional orchestra of national prominence. Milton Katims later served as artistic director of the University of Houston School of Music (1976-84), and earlier in his career, taught at the Juilliard School of Music (1947-54).

He had an excellent eye for spotting emerging talent, signing up promising youngsters like Yo-Yo Ma (who was just 15 at the time) and Itzhak Perlman as soloists long before they attained fame. The last surviving protégé of the legendary maestro Arturo Toscanini, Katims was an internationally renowned violist who spent 11 years performing under Toscanini's baton in the NBC Symphony Orchestra. Notable positions he held over his long career include assistant conductor and first violist for the NBC Symphony Orchestra, assistant conductor and solo violist for radio station WOR, as well as the Mutual Broadcasting System (1935-43), and guest-conductor of the New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Boston Symphony and London Philharmonic. He'd played violin from a young age, but later switched to the viola.

In 2004, he published a joint memoir, The Pleasure Was Ours, written with his wife, Virginia Katims.

Date and place of birth: June 24, 1909, Brooklyn, New York, U.S.A.

Date, place and cause of death: February 27, 2006, Richmond Beach Rehabilitation Center, Shoreline, near Seattle, Washington, U.S.A. (Heart failure)

Wife: Virginia Peterson

Children
Son: Peter Michael Katims
Daughter: Pamela Artura Katims

Parents
Father: Harry Katimsky
Mother: Caroline Katimsky