E. Robert Schmitz

Elie Robert Schmitz ( born February 8, 1889 in Paris, † September 5, 1949 in San Francisco) was a French pianist and music teacher.

Schmitz sang as a child in the church choir and had violin and piano lessons. From 1906 to 1910 he studied both instruments at the Conservatoire de Paris, where Camille Chevillard and Louis Diemer were among his teachers. In 1909 he interrupted his studies for a U.S. tour as accompanist to the singer Emma Eames, Maggie Teyte and Leo Slezak. From 1911 he headed the Association Musicale Moderne et Artistique ( 1914 Association de Concerts Schmitz ). The company, which included several chamber music ensembles in addition to an orchestra and a choir, played first performances of many works by contemporary French composers including Claude Debussy Première rhapsody for clarinet and orchestra, Albert Roussel's Evocations, Paul Le Flems Crépuscules d' amour and Darius Milhaud's Suite Symphonique.

Before the First World War Schmitz also toured as a piano soloist through Holland and Belgium and stepped in particular with piano works of Claude Debussy, he also worked as a companion with the main actors of Pelléas et Mélisande, David Devries and Maggie Teyte. During the First World War, Schmitz spent three years at the front, including as a participant in the Battle of Verdun, and suffered an injury to his left hand.

In 1918 he resumed his career as a pianist in New York again. He played compositions by John Alden Carpenter, Arnold Schoenberg, Maurice Ravel, Sergei Prokofiev, Darius Milhaud, Arthur Honegger and Manuel de Falla. In Thomas Alva Edison's laboratories in New Jersey, he played a recording. In 1920 he founded the Franco - American Society ( from 1924 Pro Musica Inc.) to promote contemporary musicians and music. The company promoted performances of European music as Maurice Ravel, Bela Bartok, Ottorino Respighi, Paul Hindemith, Arnold Schoenberg, Arthur Honegger, Darius Milhaud, Albert Roussel, Alexandre Tansman, Sergei Prokofiev, Alfredo Casella, Arthur Bliss, Germaine Tailleferre, Florent Schmitt, Zoltán Kodály, Igor Stravinsky, Anton Webern, Alexander Tcherepnin, Ernst Toch, Nadia Boulanger, Carlos Salzedo and Georges Barrere and sent American artists such as Marion Bauer, Charles Tomlinson Griffes and Louis Gruenberg to France or Russia (Roland Hayes ).

In addition, Schmitz toured continue as a pianist and teacher through the U.S. and Europe. Even after the dissolution of the Pro Musica Inc., he campaigned for the promotion of contemporary music. In 1945 he founded in San Francisco, the E. Robert Schmitz School and donated a Claude Debussy Prize for pianists. Among other things, he wrote a textbook of piano technique ( The Capture of Inspiration, 1935) and a book on Debussy ( The Piano Works of Claude Debussy, 1950).

Swell

  • Yale University Library - Irving S. Gilmore Music Library - Register to E. Robert Schmitz The Papers
  • James R. Briscoe: " Debussy in Performance", Yale University Press, 1999, ISBN 9780300076264, pp. 113 ff
  • Classic pianist
  • Music teacher
  • Frenchman
  • Born in 1889
  • Died in 1949
  • Man
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