Gustave Adolph Kerker (February 28, 1857 – June 29, 1923) was a German-born composer and conductor who spent most of his life in the US. He became a musical director for

Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street **Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...

theatre productions and wrote the music for a series of

operetta Operetta is a form of theatre and a genre of light opera. It includes spoken dialogue, songs, and dances. It is lighter than opera in terms of its music, orchestral size, length of the work, and at face value, subject matter. Apart from its s ...

s and musicals produced on Broadway and in the West End. His most famous musical was '' The Belle of New York''.

Life and career

Kerker was born in

Herford Herford (; nds, Hiarwede) is a town in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, located in the lowlands between the hill chains of the Wiehen Hills and the Teutoburg Forest. It is the capital of the district of Herford (district), Herford. Geography ...

, Germany and began to study the cello at the age of seven."Gustave Kerker, Composer, Dead," ''New York Times'' (June 30, 1923), p. 11 His family emigrated to the U.S. in 1867, settling in

Louisville, Kentucky Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border ...

. Kerker played in pit orchestras at local theatres and then began to conduct. His early

, ''Cadets'', toured the South in 1879. Kerker then moved to New York City, where he was engaged as the principal conductor at the Casino Theatre. There, he began to add his own songs into the scores of foreign

s, notably

Charles Lecocq Alexandre Charles Lecocq (3 June 183224 October 1918) was a French composer, known for his opérettes and opéras comiques. He became the most prominent successor to Jacques Offenbach in this sphere, and enjoyed considerable success in the 1870 ...

's ''The Pearl of Pekin'', since these works had no effective copyright in the U.S. Kerker's first complete

in New York was ''Castles in the Air'' in 1890. He wrote over twenty shows, the most successful of which were the London musical burlesque ''

Little Christopher Columbus ''Little Christopher Columbus'' is a burlesque opera in two acts, with music by Ivan Caryll and Gustave Kerker and a libretto by George R. Sims and Cecil Raleigh. It opened on 10 October 1893 at the Lyric Theatre in London and then transferred ...

'' (1893), and the international musical hit '' The Belle of New York'' (1897). Other notable musicals included ''An American Beauty'' (1896), ''The Girl from Up There'' (1901), ''Winsome Winnie'' (1903), ''The Tourists'' (1906), and ''Fascinating Flora'' (1907) to a book by

R. H. Burnside Robert Hubber Thorne Burnside (August 13, 1873 – September 14, 1952) was an American actor, director, producer, composer, and playwright. He was artistic director of the 5,200-seat New York Hippodrome from 1908 to 1923. He wrote and staged h ...

and Joseph W. Herbert. In 1909, he was asked to leave Germany by authorities for having failed to perform military service in his youth. He was one of the nine founding members of

ASCAP The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) () is an American not-for-profit performance-rights organization (PRO) that collectively licenses the public performance rights of its members' musical works to venues, broadca ...

in 1914. Kerker was married twice: first to Rose Keene whose stage name was Rose Leighton (married 1884) and second to Mattie B. Rivenberg (June 5, 1908), a show girl in the musical ''Nearly a Hero'' who was 30 years his junior. There are no children listed on the 1920 census. Kerker died following an "attack of

apoplexy Apoplexy () is rupture of an internal organ and the accompanying symptoms. The term formerly referred to what is now called a stroke. Nowadays, health care professionals do not use the term, but instead specify the anatomic location of the bleedi ...

" at his home on 565 West 169th Street in New York City at the age of 66.

Theater credits

* 1879 - ''The Cadets'' * 1888 - ''Pearl of Pekin'' (libretto by

Charles Alfred Byrne Charles Alfred Byrne (1848 – 1909) was an American journalist and playwright. Byrne was involved in a number of publications including ''Truth'' and '' The Journalist''. He translated the libretto of Debussy's opera Pelléas et Mélisande ...

) * 1890 - ''Castles in the Air'' (libretto by Byrne) * 1893 - ''

'', with

Ivan Caryll Félix Marie Henri Tilkin (12 May 1861 – 29 November 1921), better known by his pen name Ivan Caryll, was a Belgian-born composer of operettas and Edwardian musical comedies in the English language, who made his career in London and later N ...

, libretto by

George Robert Sims George Robert Sims (2 September 1847 – 4 September 1922) was an English journalist, poet, dramatist, novelist and ''bon vivant''. Sims began writing lively humour and satiric pieces for ''Fun'' magazine and ''The Referee'', but he was soon co ...

and Cecil Raleigh * 1894 - ''Prince Kam or A Trip to Venus'' (libretto by Byrne and Louis Harrison) * 1895 - ''Kismet or Two Tangled Turks'' (libretto by Richard F. Carroll) * 1896 **'' In Gay New York'' (musical

revue A revue is a type of multi-act popular theatrical entertainment that combines music, dance, and sketches. The revue has its roots in 19th century popular entertainment and melodrama but grew into a substantial cultural presence of its own duri ...

; libretto by Hugh Morton **''

The Lady Slavey ''The Lady Slavey'' was an 1894 operetta in two acts with a score by John Crook (with contributions by Henry Wood and Letty Lind, among others), to a libretto by George Dance (with additional lyrics by Adrian Ross, among others) which opened a ...

'' (libretto by George Dance; lyrics by Morton) **''An American Beauty'' (libretto by Morton) * 1897 **''The Whirl of the Town'' (musical revue; libretto by Morton) **'' The Belle of New York'' (libretto by Morton) *1898 **''My Estelle'' (libretto by Morton) **''Yankee Doodle Dandy'' (libretto by Morton) **''The Telephone Girl'' (libretto by Morton) *1899 – ''The Man in the Moon'' (with

Ludwig Engländer Ludwig Engländer (October 20, 1853 Vienna, Austria – September 13, 1914) was an Austrian-born American composer of more than 30 musicals. He was born in Vienna, Austria.Passport application available in the series ''U.S. Passport Applications, ...

and

Reginald De Koven Henry Louis Reginald De Koven (April 3, 1859January 16, 1920) was an American music critic and prolific composer, particularly of comic operas. Biography De Koven was born in Middletown, Connecticut, and moved to Europe in 1870, where he receive ...

) *1901 - ''

The Girl from Up There ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...

'' (libretto by Morton) *1902 - ''The Billionaire'' (libretto by Harry B. Smith) *1903 **"The Lobster Song (I Was Walking 'Round the Ocean)" in '' The Wizard of Oz'' (libretto by Morton) **''Winsome Winnie'' (contributor; libretto by

Edward Jakobowski Edward Jakobowski (17 April 1856 – 29 April 1929) was an English composer, especially of musical theatre, best known for writing the hit comic opera '' Erminie''. Life and career Jakobowski was born in Islington, London, the only son of Isr ...

; most of the music by

Harry Paulton Harry may refer to: TV shows * ''Harry'' (American TV series), a 1987 American comedy series starring Alan Arkin * ''Harry'' (British TV series), a 1993 BBC drama that ran for two seasons * ''Harry'' (talk show), a 2016 American daytime talk show ...

) *1904 **''Burning to Sing, or Singing to Burn. A 'Very' Grand Opera'' (libretto by

) *1906 **''The Social Whirl'' (libretto by Charles Doty and Joseph W. Herbert; lyrics by Herbert) **''The Tourists'' (libretto by

) *1907 **'' The White Hen'' (libretto by Roderic C. Penfield; lyrics by Penfield and Paul West) **''Fascinating Flora'' (libretto by Burnside and Herbert) *1909 **''Die oberen Zehntausend'' (libretto by Julius Freund) *1912 – ''

Two Little Brides 2 (two) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 1 and preceding 3. It is the smallest and only even prime number. Because it forms the basis of a duality, it has religious and spiritual significance in many cultur ...

'' (libretto by Arthur Anderson and

Harold R. Atteridge Harold Richard Atteridge (July 9, 1886 – January 15, 1938) was an American composer, librettist and lyricist primarily for musicals and revues. He wrote the book and lyrics for over 20 musicals and revues for the Shubert family, including sev ...

) *1921 – ''

The Whirl of New York ''The Whirl of New York'' is a Broadway musical that premiered at Winter Garden Theatre on June 13, 1921. It was an expanded and substantially re-worked version of '' The Belle of New York'' (1897, music by Gustave Kerker with book and lyrics by ...

'', based on ''The Belle of New York'' (libretto by Morton and Edgar Smith.

Notes

References

Profile of Kerker from Answers.com (source: American Theatre Guide)

External links

*

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kerker, Gustave 1857 births 1923 deaths German composers People from Herford German expatriates in the United States 19th-century German musicians