Romanian violinist, pianist, conductor, and composer, born in Liveni (present-day Enescu). His last name was originally spelled Enescu. He began study of the violin at the age of 4 and entered the Vienna Conservatory at 7 and the Paris Conservatoire at 13. Among his masters were the noted French composers Jules Massenet and Gabriel Fauré. Enesco toured Europe as a violin virtuoso after 1899. In 1923 he made his debut as a conductor in a New York concert of the Philadelphia Orchestra; he conducted the New York Philharmonic in 1937-38. Enesco was also a noted teacher; the violinist Yehudi Menuhin was among his pupils. After World War II, Enesco made Paris his home.
Enesco was considered the outstanding Romanian composer of his time. A versatile musician, he wrote in a number of styles: romantic, neoclassical, atonal. His fame as a composer, however, rests on such works as the two Romanian Rhapsodies, in which he makes use of national folk melodies. His other works include the symphonic suite Poéma Româna (1898), three symphonies, chamber music, and the opera Œdipe (1936).