Alfred Wallenstein

Alfred Wallenstein ( born October 7, 1898 according to other sources October 7, 1901 in Chicago, Illinois, † February 8, 1983 in New York City ) was an American cellist and conductor.

The descendant of Albrecht von Wallenstein grew up in Los Angeles, where he learned to play the cello. The age of fifteen he entered as "The Wonder Boy cellist " on. From 1917 to 1918 he was cellist of the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra conducted by Alfred Hertz. From 1919 to 1922 he studied with Julius Klengel in Leipzig. Until 1929 he was principal cellist of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, in addition he taught from 1927 to 1929 at the Chicago Musical College and also played a radio recordings.

From 1929 to 1936 he was principal cellist of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Arturo Toscanini, at whose suggestion he also began to direct. He worked for the radio station WOR, he was musical director from 1935 to 1945. Here he led, among other things, all the cantatas of Johann Sebastian Bach and all twenty-six piano concertos of Mozart. In 1942, he was honored for his pioneering work in radio with the Peabody Award.

In 1943, he returned to Los Angeles, where he with the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra and the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra European works of Bach's Christmas Oratorio, Beethoven's Missa Solemnis to runner-up to Mahler's Symphony, but also the great works of contemporary American composers such as Samuel Barber, Aaron Copland, Henry Cowell, Paul Creston, David Diamond, Morton Gould and Virgil Thomson aufführte.

Later Wallenstein worked as guest conductor at festivals and orchestras in the U.S. and Europe. From 1958 to 1961 he headed the Caramoor Festival, from 1962 to 1964, he oversaw a program for aspiring conductors of the Ford Foundation at the Peabody Conservatory, from 1968 to 1971 he taught at the Juilliard School of Music. His last appearance as conductor he had eighty-one in 1979 with the orchestra of the school.