Paul Fromm (September 28, 1906 – July 4, 1987) was a Jewish

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

wine merchant and performing arts patron through the Fromm Music Foundation. The ''Organum for Paul Fromm'' was composed by John Harbison in his honor.

Early life

Born in

Kitzingen Kitzingen () is a town in the Germany, German state of Bavaria, capital of the Kitzingen (district), district Kitzingen. It is part of the Franconia geographical region and has around 21,000 inhabitants. Surrounded by vineyards, Kitzingen County i ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

to a prominent family of vintners, Fromm was an early supporter of contemporary classical music in that country after he was exposed to

Stravinsky Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (6 April 1971) was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor, later of French (from 1934) and American (from 1945) citizenship. He is widely considered one of the most important and influential 20th-century clas ...

's ''

Rite of Spring ''The Rite of Spring''. Full name: ''The Rite of Spring: Pictures from Pagan Russia in Two Parts'' (french: Le Sacre du printemps: tableaux de la Russie païenne en deux parties) (french: Le Sacre du printemps, link=no) is a ballet and orchestral ...

'' in the early 1920s. He attended concerts at the Donaueschingen Festival further deepening his appreciation of the genre.
A Jew, he was forced to flee

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

in 1938 and immigrated to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

where he settled in Chicago where he co-founded a wine importing firm, the Geeting and Fromm Corporation in 1939 and then founded the Great Lakes Wine Company in 1943.

Patronage

By 1952, his business was sufficiently well established to allow him to focus on establishing the Fromm Music Foundation, which financially supporting young composers through grants awarded on the recommendation of its staff of musicians and experts. Fromm's protégés include

Benjamin Lees Benjamin Lees (January 8, 1924 – May 31, 2010) was an American composer of classical music. Early life Lees was born Benjamin George Lisniansky in Harbin, Manchuria, of Russian-Jewish descent. Lees was still an infant when his family emigra ...

, Ben Weber and

Elvin Epstein Elvin may refer to: * Elvin (given name) * Elvin (surname) * Elvin (service), a distributed event routing service * ''Elvin!'', a 1968 album by Elvin Jones See also

* * * Alvin (disambiguation) * Elfin (disambiguation) * Elvan (disambiguati ...

. A "Paul Fromm Concert" of

contemporary classical music Contemporary classical music is classical music composed close to the present day. At the beginning of the 21st century, it commonly referred to the post-1945 modern forms of post-tonal music after the death of Anton Webern, and included seria ...

is performed annually at the University of Chicago in his memory. The Paul Fromm Award is given annually by the Tanglewood Music Center in his name. During the period 1984-89, Earle Brown, then president of the Fromm Music Foundation, recommended many American composers for commissions including

Daniel Asia Daniel Asia (born June 27, 1953) is an American composer. He was born in Seattle, Washington, in the United States of America. Biography He received a B.A. degree from Hampshire College and a M.M. from the Yale School of Music. His major teacher ...

, David Lang,

William Susman William Joseph Susman (born August 29, 1960) is an American composer of concert and film music and a pianist. He has written orchestral and chamber music as well as documentary film scores. Music Susman's music is inspired by Afro-Cuban montuñ ...

, Henry Brant and

Steve Reich Stephen Michael Reich ( ; born October 3, 1936) is an American composer known for his contribution to the development of minimal music in the mid to late 1960s. Reich's work is marked by its use of repetitive figures, slow harmonic rhythm, a ...

. Paul Fromm was married to

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

psychology professor and writer Erika Fromm whom he met in Germany in 1936 and married in 1938 shortly before

emigrating Emigration is the act of leaving a resident country or place of residence with the intent to settle elsewhere (to permanently leave a country). Conversely, immigration describes the movement of people into one country from another (to permanentl ...

to the United States. Fromm's 1966 article "A Contemporary Role for American Music Libraries" inspired the major compendium of Boston-area composers and compositions called the Boston Composers Project.

References

Rescuer of Necktie Salesmen
''

Time Magazine ''Time'' (stylized in all caps) is an American news magazine based in New York City. For nearly a century, it was published weekly, but starting in March 2020 it transitioned to every other week. It was first published in New York City on Mar ...

'', July 23, 1956
Paul Fromm, Classical-music Patron, is Dead
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'',

John Rockwell John Sargent Rockwell (born September 16, 1940) is an American music critic, dance critic and arts administrator. According to '' Grove Music Online'', "Rockwell brings two signal attributes to his critical work: a genuine admiration for all ...

, July 6, 1987

External links

Fromm Music Foundation
Bruce Duffie, April 9, 1986 1906 births 1987 deaths People from Kitzingen 20th-century American businesspeople American people of German-Jewish descent Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to the United States 20th-century classical music 20th-century American philanthropists {{Illinois-bio-stub