Website promoting the compositions and cassettes of Bruce and Donna Adler. Jewish music that searches for spirituality done in a folk/bluegrass style. The Adlers are Reconstructionist and Reform rabbis.
http://w3.one.net/~bruad/index.html

Russian Jewish composer (name also spelled Veprik). Born in Balta, near Odessa, June 1899. Died, Moscow, 13 October 1958. Born in the Ukraine, but grew up in Poland. Studied piano at Warsaw Conservatory until age 10. Studied composition in Leipzig with Janacek and Reger between 1909-1914. Studied piano with Dubasov in St. Petersburg Conservatory. Studied composition with Zhitomirsky from 1917-1920. Became a teacher 1923. Very active in the founding of the Society for Jewish Folk Music. In mid 1920s, composed several Jewish works, including Songs and Dances of the Ghetto, Hebrew Songs for Orchestra, and Kaddish. In March 1933, “Dances and Songs of the Ghetto” was performed in Carnegie Hall, New York conducted by Toscanini. During the Stalin regime, Weprik was sent to a Gulag.…
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Hugo Weisgall, conductor, opera and liturgical choral music composer, was born at Eibenschütz, Moravia on October 13, 1912. The son of a cantor, he grew up in Baltimore, and studied at the Peabody Conservatory, Curtis Institute, and received a PhD from Johns Hopkins in 1940. He studied composition with Roger Sessions. Weisgall founded the Chamber Music Society of Baltimore in 1948, and the Hilltop Opera in 1952. He directed the Baltimore Institute of Musical Arts, a conservatory for African-Americans. In 1952 he became faculty chair at JTS, the Jewish Theological Seminary in NY. He also taught at Julliard (starting 1957) and Queens College (starting 1961). He served as President of the American Music Center, and elected president of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters (1990).…
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Lazar Weiner, the first conductor of the Freiheit Gezangsverein, and a prolific composer of Yiddish art song, cantatas and choral music, came to America in 1914. He became the music director of the Central Synagogue in New York, conductor of the Workman’s Circle Chorus and music director of the weekly radio program The Message of Israel. Manja Ressler has written a brief article on Weiner for a Netherlands online journal (which may becurrently one of the only pieces of biographical information on this composer on the Internet.) For more informaton on Weiner, read the English translation of Israel Rabinovitch’s work: Of Jewish Music Ancient and Modern, Montreal: The Book Center, 1952.
http://www.xs4all.nl/~ljg/last.html#5

Also known as Moisei Vainberg, but “Weinberg” is correct spelling. Born 8 December 1919 in Warsaw. d. Moscow on 26 February, 1996. Prolific composer of classical music. Studied in Warsaw Academy of Music, under the direction of Szymanowski. Fled the Nazis in 1939 after his entire family had been murdered. Fled to Minsk, and from there found work at the opera house in Tashkent, in Uzbekistan. He sent his First Symphony to Shostakovich, who helped him come to Moscow, and later saved him under Stalin. Weinberg made a living by composing in Russia for most of his life. Olympia Records has released 16 CDs of Vainbergs music. Chandos label is releasing symphonic works and Claves is releasing chamber symphonies. Other individual pieces appear on labels such as Naxos.…
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A time line of the life of Kurt Weill. In German.
http://www.dhm.de/lemo/html/biografien/WeillKurt/

The Kurt Weill Foundation website includes several biographies about Weill, including a brief biography and a more extended one, a time line of his life, a discography, a catalogue of works, and a bibliography of articles by and about Weill and his music. There is also a list of popular biographies as well as dissertations on the music of Weill. The website also includes information about Lotte Lenya and her career and life, publications and new cds of Weill’s music and a newsletter about foundation activities.
http://www.kwf.org/Welcome.html

Major film composer. Born 1906- Died 1967. Franz Waxman had an extensive film composing career in Europe and the US, writing over 144 film scores.
http://www.shef.ac.uk/~cm1jwb/waxman.htm

This brief life of Leon Wajner comes from an album collection of his songs, Cantos de lucha y resurgimiento (Songs of Struggle and Resurrection). Summarized and translated from the Spanish by Lori Cahan-Simon.

Leon Wajner
Born in Lodz in 1898. Died, (Argentina?) 1979. Composer, conductor, performer, and educator. Wajner came from a family of cantors. He studied viola, conducting, at the State Conservatory in Warsaw. Between the years 1915 and 1939, he was a prize winning violist and toured Europe, taught singing and music in various schools, and directed various choirs and orchestras. He was musical director of the Polish Military Theater in Lublin, as well as acting as Minister of Religion and Culture.

He was called to service in the Polish army and was imprisoned by the Russians on September 17, 1939 and held in Rovno, Volinia.…
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Viktor Ullmann was a composer who perished during the Holocaust in Europe. The website devoted to Ullmann includes a biography, a lists of works, a bibliography, archival photos and a time frame of his life, related links and a newsletter. The newsletter, Strange Passenger, is being started up and is scheduled for publication in April, 2003 through the Viktor Ullmann Foundation.
http://mitglied.lycos.de/mwiener/ullmann/index-e.html

Composer and pianist. Born, 1907. Died, Ponar, 1943. Conducted the Jewish theatre orchestra in the Vilna ghetto. Wrote, Yisrolik, a song about a child peddler in the ghettos.

Composer. Virtuoso pianist. Born in Galicia, 1897. Died, Auschwitz in October, 1944. Arrived at Terezín in December, 1941. Led concerts of semiclassical music, “very much in the style of the “spa” orchestras popular in prewar Europe”. Gave ambitious piano concerts. Composed in Terezin, but only one song survived, Ein Jüdisches Kind, composed November 4,1942, and set to a text by his wife, Erika. Works included on a CD: “Composers of the Holocaust.”
http://www.leonarda.com/le342.html

Israeli composer. Born Joseph Gruenthal 18 April 1910 in Penne (or Pinne) that was eastern Germany near Poznan, Poland. Known as Israel’s foremost pioneer of electronic music. He studied piano and composition at the Berlin Hochschule fur Musik from 1928-1930 with Hindemith, and twelve-tone technique with Heinz Tiessen. He worked as a pianist, but retrained as a photographer to get access to a visa to leave for Israel in 1934. He worked in Haifa and then joined Kibbutz Kesher, then moved to Jerusalem to teach piano and composition at the conservatory. From 1948 -1952, he was director of the Israel Academy of Music and 1965-1971 head of musicology at Hebrew University. Tal’s works include six symphonies, operas, piano concertos, a viola concerto, harpsichord concerto with tape, woodwind quintet, 3 string quartets and an oboe sonata.…
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Born, Romny, Ukraine, 7 February 1891, Died Tel Aviv, 14 November 1982. Born into a family of klezmer musicians, Joachim started on violin but moved to playing cello. Studied at Leipzig Conservatory, graduating in 1912. Moved to Zurich during WWI, and organized concerts of Jewish music. From 1921-1938 lived in Vienna and participated in Vienna String Quartet. Emigrated to Israel, becoming involved in organizing concerts in Tel Aviv, teaching and performing cello. Wrote many pedagogical works on cello. He died in Tel Aviv in 1982. Stutchewsky was a great collector of Jewish music. Many of those items as well as his papers are held in the Felijia Blumenthal Center Archives in Tel Aviv. Some of his compositions includeIsraeli Melodies, Hasidic Suite for Cello and Piano, and Tsfat, a symphonic poem.…
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Robert Stern, Professor of Theory and Composition, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, has written several Jewish thematic compositions. Faculty biography at University website.
http://www.umass.edu/music-dance/faclist2.html#rstern

Ben Steinberg is a well-known contemporary synagogue composer with numerous awards and achievements, living in Toronto and currently serving as Director of Music at Temple Sinai in Toronto, Canada. Steinberg has composed for orchestra, chamber ensemble, chorus and solo voice. Many of his works are published by Transcontinental in New York.
http://www.musiccentre.ca/CMC/dac_rca/eng/p_/Steinberg_Ben.html

American. Composer and Cellist. Alan Shulman was born in Baltimore, Maryland, June 4, 1915 and died in Hudson, New York, July 10, 2002. He studied at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore and became a cellist, playing in many orchestras, including the National Orchestral Association under Leon Barzin, and the N.B.C. Symphony under Arturo Toscanini. Shulman’s first successful composition was Theme and Variations for Viola and Orchestra which received its premiere over NBC in 1941 with Emanuel Vardi (Bridge 9119) as soloist. A biography is available online at his website, along with many interesting photos of Shulman with other musicians, a list of works, and a discography. Many of his early recordings have now been rereleased. Besides his many classical compositions, Shulman wrote works on Jewish themes.…
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Laurence Sherr is Composer-in-Residence and Assistant Professor of Music at Kennesaw State University in metropolitan Atlanta. Besides composition and teaching, Professor Sherr also is active in a local Atlanta klezmer band, Oy Klezmer!
http://ksumail.kennesaw.edu/~lsherr/bio.html

American-born composer. Professor of music, Brandeis University. Born, Lynn, Massachusetts, 29 April 1920. Shapero grew up in Newton, MA playing piano and joined Hal Kenny Orchestra, a swing band in high school. He studied with Nicolas Slonimsky and Ernst Krenek, attended Harvard studying composition with Piston and Hindemith, and graduated in 1941. Shapero attended Tanglewood where he premieredNine-Minute Overture and which won the Prix de Rome in 1941. In 1946, Shapero won the Joseph H. Bearns Prize for the Symphony for String Orchestra. In 1947, Leonard Bernstein premiered his Symphony for Classical Orchestra with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Shapero joined the faculty of Brandeis University in 1951 and helped to found the music department with Irving Fine. Shapero has also won two Guggenheim Fellowships (in 1947 and in 1948), two Fulbright Fellowship (in 1948 and in 1960), and a Naumburg Fellowship.…
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The grandson of Arnold Schoenberg has mounted an extensive website devoted to the composer. An excellent source of academic materials.

http://www.primenet.com/~randols/schoenberg/schoenlinks.html
An article about Schoenberg in Wall Street Journal, September 17, 1998, Greg Sandrow.

Born 1939, Jerusalem, Israel. Musicologist. Professor of Sacred Music. Director of Cantorial Studies at the Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion in Jerusalem. PhD. University of Chicago, 1976. A biography appears on Creative Horizons in Music website.
http://www.shemesh.co.il/creativehorizons/schleiferbio.htm

Jacobo Schkliar, who served as chazzan and organist in Buenos Aires, Argentina is honored in a website that features a brief biography and some sound files of his recordings.
http://www.geocities.com/Vienna/Opera/7929/

The Jewish Indian-born composer’s biography and a listing of published works are included. Especially nice is the listing of compositions with “first page” scans of the score as a sample of the work. Mp3 technology is employed for the sound samples.
http://www.simonsargon.com/

2 websites about Lazare Saminsky, composer.

http://www.musica-judaica.com/samin_e.htm
http://www.xrefer.com/entry/357218

An accomplished conductor and composer, Lucas Richman is Assistant Conductor of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and a cover conductor for the New York Philharmonic. He has written many compositions on Jewish theme for orchestra.

http://lajs.home.att.net/bios/LucasRichman.htm
Lucas Richman’s Orchestral Compositions on Jewish Themes

The New Music Box archive biography of Steve Reich includes several transcripts of interviews with Reich, full text, as well as a biography, list of works, recordings and links.
http://www.newmusicbox.org/archive/firstperson/reich/bio.html

The French government’s site on Jacques Offenbach with a brief biography, a list of works, a discography and a bibliography for further reading. In French.
http://www.france.diplomatie.fr/culture/france/musique/composit/offenbac.html

In French. This website gives a brief biography, discography, bibliography and a list of works.
http://www.france.diplomatie.fr/culture/france/musique/composit/milhaud.html

A biography of Meyerbeer, (born Yaakov Liebmann Beer), this website was created by his self-designated “fan club”, a group devoted to the continued recognition and performance of Meyerbeer’s works. This site is also a source for information on Halevy and Auber. What’s really great about this site for students are the links to full text articles by “contributors” of the fan club. These contributors range from professors to journalists to students. Also included is a thorough discography as well as the attachment of an historical discography.

A brief biography extracted from the Grove Concise Dictionary of Music.
http://w3.rz-berlin.mpg.de/cmp/mendelssohn.html

Felix Mendelssohn
A brief biography of Felix Mendelssohn by Richard Rodda.
http://www.sirius.com/~arts/mendbio.html

A website from the Austrian tourism bureau on the composer, Gustav Mahler, with neatly laid out biographical essays and links to information about Mahler sites to visit in Austria. Included is a bibliography for further reading.
http://austria-tourism.at/personen/mahler/index.html

Gustav Mahler: Song Symphonist
A book length biography on the web, full text, by Gabriel Engel. This remarkable web achievement is the first English language biography that took advantage of personal letters of Mahler. The title of the website comes from the book published by the Bruckner Society in 1932 which is presented full text on the website. The entire website on Mahler is maintained by Jason Greshes at:
http://www.netaxs.com/~jgreshes/mahler/.

Alex Lubet, professor of music at the University of Minnesota many works on Jewish themes. His website at the University includes contact information and a brief listing of some compositional highlights.
http://www.music.umn.edu/fac_rsch/bios/lubet.htm

Composer, performer, librarian and archivist, and expert on the works of Marc Blitzstein, Leonard Lehrman lives and works on Long Island, New York. The artist page includes a biography, photos, a discography and a list of works.
http://ljlehrman.artists-in-residence.com

American. Born July 3, 1926 in New York City to eastern European Jewish parents. A prolific composer, he has an impressive output of work in all forms: 7 operas, 12 symphonies, 9 ballets, 7 string quartets, 10 concertos and hundreds of chamber works. His father Elias was a baker, and his mother Fanny had worked in the mills and factories of Kansas. The family settled in Brooklyn, forced on a constant move by the Depression. His father added singer and entertainer and his mother became a seamtress in NY. At 5 he started violin but gave it up. At ten he started clarinet in school. He became fascinated with composition and learned piano, allowing him to work as a young jazz musician in clubs and bars in the Coney Island area of Brooklyn.…
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Born, Nishny-Novgorod, 1883. Died, Moscow, April 22, 1951. Composer. Distinctive member of The Society for Jewish Folk Music in Moscow at the beginning of the twentieth century. Attended Moscow Conservatory starting around 1897, graduating 1908. Active in the modern music division of the Commission for Folklore, and also in the mid-1920s, wrote music for the Russian Jewish theaters, the Moscow Jewish State Theater and the The White Russian Jewish State Theater. His most important work, the symphonic cantata “Kaddish” for mixed chorus, tenor and orchestra (1921-22), thought lost for many years, was recently recovered in Russia. His music captures the “Hebraic” flavor, including Hebrew Caprice, The Night at the Old Market Place, Gazelles and Songs and Hebrew Sketches.
http://www.musica-judaica.com/akrejn_e.htm

Cantor Elihu Feldman has put together a 2-part series on the 4 Koussevitzky brothers, important cantors of the twentieth century: Cantors Moshe, David, Jacob and Simcha Koussevitzky. These are excellent brief biographies, giving some background on each of the brothers. Two URL’s from the Cantor’s pages at B’nai Shalom in West Orange, New Jersey.
http://www.uscj.org/njersey/w-orange/cantor/Cantor2003feb.htm http://www.uscj.org/njersey/w-orange/cantor/Cantor2003mar.htm

An extensive website devoted to the composer Eric Korngold including a biography, bibliography of futher works about his life, a discography and a catalogue of compositions. An interesting set of links, including a direct link to Scott, his major publishing house and several testimonials rounds out this interesting site.
http://www.geocities.com/~bs-magazine/korngold/i_kmenu.html

Erich Korngold, one of America’s greatest Hollywood film composers, and forerunner of people such as John Williams, died in 1957, but is finally gaining more of his well deserved recognition. A website devoted to Korngold and his music has been produced by an ardent fan group. It includes biographical information, a listing of his general musical works, film scores, discography, major books about the composer, archival photos of the composer, and a link to an online webcast of “die tote stadt” (which requires a subscription). There are also analyses of film scores, such as Sea Hawk andSea Wolf.
http://www.korngold-society.org

Israeli-born American choral conductor and composer. Kaplan graduated from the Israeli Conservatory (1954); Juilliard School of Music(1955); post graduate diploma from Juilliard (1957). Founded the Camerata Singers in 1961 and in that same year became head of Juilliard’s choral department. During his tenure at Juilliard, Kaplan held a teaching position at the School of Sacred Music of Union Theological Seminary, and directed the choral program for the New York State Summer School for the Arts (1976-83). Kaplan also served as music director of the Collegiate Chorale in New York (1961-73), music director of the Symphonic Choral Society of New York (1968-77), and associate director for choral activities at the Seattle Symphony (1995-2000). Kaplan’s recorded compositions include Glorious: A collection of Psalms and biblical songs, TheK’dusha Symphony, Arvit L’Shabbat, and Psalms of Abraham.…
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American. B. 1955 in Washington, D.C. Studied composition at the University of Pennsylvania with George Crumb, George Rochberg, and Richard Wernick. Also at the Conservatoire de Musique in Geneva, Switzerland. Since 1999, he is Mary D.B.T. and James H. Semans Professor of Music at Duke University, where he taught since 1981. Jaffe co-directs Duke’s contemporary music concert series Encounters: with the Music of Our Time, and works with a inventive and gifted group of young composers. Jaffe won a Rome Prize from the American Academy in Rome, the American Academy of Arts and Letters Prize, and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, Tanglewood, and the Guggenheim Foundation. Brandeis University awarded him its Creative Arts Citation (1989), Kennedy Center Friedheim Award for First Quartet(1991.…
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A very thorough and complete site about the great Polish-Jewish violinist and musician, this site includes biographical materials that include scans of primary documents, letters and articles. Some amazing photos, stories and anecdotes. It includes many articles and texts about Huberman as well as excerpts from interviews. Materials about his work in Israel in the 1930’s. There’s a discography and a bibliography. Part of the biographical materials come from Huberman’s secretary. There is also an amazing section that includes excerpts of live radio broadcasts of Huberman! Wow. All Thanks to Patrick Harris.
www.huberman.info

American. Born 1901. Patron of the arts who helped found New Friends of Music and helped save many Jews from Europe during the Holocaust, Hirschman’s papers are interesting to American Jewish music history due to his contacts and friends, and influence on modern music. Also founded an FM radion station.NYPL contains papers in the Music Division.
http://digilib.nypl.org/dynaweb/ead/music/mushirschmann/@Generic__BookView

Pianist, opera and film composer. Born Brest-Litovsk, Russia, between 22 July-3 Aug 1884; died Beverly Hills, CA, 10 June 1964. Studied with Ferruccio Busoni in Berlin. Led the composition department at the Chicago Musical College from 1933 to 1936. Notable operas were Jack and the Beanstalk, Op. 35 (1930) and The Emperor Jones, Op. 36 (1931), which was performed at the Met. Film scores nominated for Academy Awards included The Fight For Life (1940), So Ends Our Night (1941) and Commandos Strike At Dawn (1942). Papers held at NYPL and are available to the public.
http://digilib.nypl.org/dynaweb/ead/music/musgruen/@Generic__BookView

Born: 1829 in New Orleans, Louisiana. Died: December 18, 1869. Descended from Sephardic Jews on his father’s side, Gottschalk is one of the intriguing figures on 19th century New Orleans lore. A biography about him with photos, discography and links to Gottschalk sites. The Library of Congress also has a sheet music collection online. Users should use the search box and type “Gottschalk” to view a list of scanned music.American Sheet Music
http://www.louismoreaugottschalk.com/Biography/biography.html

Publishing music for Jack Gottlieb. Lists scores and recordings and provides a biography. Gottlieb aslo published the book “Funny, It Doesn’t Sound Jewish: How yiddish Songs and Synagogue Melodies Influenced Tin Pan Alley, Broadway and Hollywood.”
http://www.jackgottlieb.com/sys-tmpl/door/

A Danish site about the movie composer with a listing of movie credits and awards.
http://www.filmmusic.dk/jerry.html

American. Born Louisville, KY, January 1, 1878. Died, NY, February 21, 1956. Composer. Bandmaster. Prolific composer of 150 pieces of band music, including 100 marches. Frequently held series of outdoor band concerts in the parks of NYC, including nightly during the summers between 1927-1947. Commissioned other composers to write for bands. Radio broadcasts and tours of his band concerts enjoyed wide popularity. Founder, First President, and Honorary Life President of the American Bandmasters Association. Goldman’s life is a story of true talent rising to the top. In 1887, his father died. Edwin was sent to an orphanage along with his four siblings while his mother tried to make a living as a piano teacher. He began early studies on cornet with the eminent cornet soloist Jules Levy.…
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Born, January 23, 1883,Rostov-on-the-Don. Opera composer. (Name also spelled Michael Gniessen). Chair of the Society of Society for Jewish Music in Moscow, at the turn of the twentieth century.
http://www.musica-judaica.com/gnesin_e.htm

Born in Vilna (Vilnius, Lithuania), 1920. Died 1944. The Leonard website provides a brief biographical sketch of the life of Glik. Known as the lyricist to “Shtil, di nakht iz oysgeshternt,” also known as Partisanerlid which tells of resistence against the Nazis.
http://www.leonarda.com/compfg.html