Died on 19 Nisan, at 87 years old. He was one of the greatest conductors and composers that Portugal has known. Parkinson's disease took Álvaro Cassuto.

He was born in Porto, son of Afonso Cassuto and grandson of Leon Cassuto, refugees from Hamburg who settled the city in 1933, supported by the Jewish community founded by Captain Arthur Barros Bastos.

Two decades ago, the Portuguese President of the Republic awarded Álvaro Cassuto the rank of Grand Officer of the Military Order of Saint James of the Sword, and the Coliseu do Porto held a concert commemorating his 50-year career and honored him by unveiling a plaque.

Graduated in law from the University of Lisbon, but it was music that would guide him. Álvaro has led nearly one hundred orchestras on several continents. In Europe, he regularly conducted some of the best orchestras, including the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra, and the London Philharmonic. Orchestra, the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, the Berlin Symphony and Radio Orchestras - which he also conducted at the Philharmonie -, the Vienna Orchestra (at the Musikvereinssaal), the Prague Orchestra, the Bucharest Orchestra, the Paris Chamber Orchestra, the Brussels Radio Orchestra, the Philharmonia Hungarica on numerous tours in Germany, the Leipzig Radio Orchestra, the National Orchestra of Spain, the Málaga Orchestra, the Bilbao Orchestra and the Valladolid Orchestra, the St. Petersburg and Moscow Orchestras, among many others.

Even in the United States, he conducted the Philadelphia Orchestra, the North Carolina Orchestra, the Oklahoma Orchestra, the San Antonio Orchestra, the Buffalo Orchestra, the Los Angeles Orchestra, the Tucson Orchestra, the Savannah Orchestra, among many others. He also frequently conducted in Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Mexico City and South Korea.

Álvaro Cassuto left behind a very extensive discography, having recorded more than twenty CDs with Nova The Portuguese Philharmonic Orchestra has a vast classical repertoire and nearly twenty works by Portuguese composers for the Naxos and Marco Polo labels. Among these, it has recorded the complete symphonies of Bomtempo, Luis de Freitas Branco and Joly Braga Santos, as well as two operas by Marcos Portugal with the Portuguese Symphony Orchestra, Algarve Orchestra, Bournemouth Symphony, Northern Sinfonia, City of London Sinfonia, Orchestra Milano Clássica, Irish National Orchestra and Royal Scottish National Orchestra.

Cassutos's family tragedy in Porto

Álvaro's father, Alfonso, was a bibliophile, antiquarian, and researcher and an active member of the Porto Jewish community, being referred to as treasurer in publications from 1933. He collaborated on studies about the Portuguese Jews of Hamburg. However, he was one of the victims of a Cherem (excommunication) decreed by the general assembly of the community in 1937, due to the fact that his name had been invoked by five poor and envious Portuguese men who repaid the loving welcome that Captain Bastos had given him with anonymous slanderous letters. These shame have resulted in divisions in the community and serious harm not only to the officer but also to the valiant Cassuto family.