William Kroll (30 January 1901 – 10 March 1980) was an American

violin The violin, sometimes known as a '' fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone ( string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument ( soprano) in the family in regu ...

ist and composer. His most famous composition is ''Banjo and Fiddle'' for

and

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keybo ...

Biography

William Kroll was born in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

and died in Boston, Massachusetts. Kroll greatly contributed to music during his day, both as a soloist and as a member of various intimate chamber

ensemble Ensemble may refer to: Art * Architectural ensemble * Ensemble (album), ''Ensemble'' (album), Kendji Girac 2015 album * Ensemble (band), a project of Olivier Alary * Ensemble cast (drama, comedy) * Ensemble (musical theatre), also known as the ...

s. From 1911 to 1914 he was a student of

Henri Marteau Henri Marteau (31 March 1874 – 3 October 1934) was a French violinist and composer, who obtained Swedish citizenship in 1915. Life and career Marteau was born in Reims. He was of German and French ancestry. His father, a Frenchman, was a well k ...

at the

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

Hochschule für Musik A music school is an educational institution specialized in the study, training, and research of music. Such an institution can also be known as a school of music, music academy, music faculty, college of music, music department (of a larger ins ...

. During the time he was a pupil of

Franz Kneisel Franz Kneisel (born January 26, 1865, Bucharest - died March 26, 1926, New York) was a violinist and music teacher. He completed early musical training at the Bucharest Conservatory and moved to Vienna in 1879, where he studied under Jakob Grün. ...

and P. Goetschius at the Institute of Musical Art (1917–1922), he made his professional debut in New York. After completing his schooling, he toured parts of

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, and

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as a soloist and a member of the Elshuco Trio (1922–1929), the Coolidge Quartet (1936–1944), and the Kroll Quartet (1944–1969). In the midst of his performance schedule, he taught at various facilities, first at the Institute of Musical Art (1922–1938), then at the

Mannes College Mannes School of Music is a music conservatory in The New School, a private research university in New York City. In the fall of 2015, Mannes moved from its previous location on Manhattan's Upper West Side to join the rest of the New School ca ...

(1943), the

Peabody Conservatory The Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University is a private conservatory and preparatory school in Baltimore, Maryland. It was founded in 1857 and opened in 1866 by merchant/financier and philanthropist George Peabody (1795–1869), ...

(1948–1967Found in the Peabody Yearbooks),

Tanglewood Tanglewood is a music venue in the towns of Lenox and Stockbridge in the Berkshire Hills of western Massachusetts. It has been the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra since 1937. Tanglewood is also home to three music schools: the ...

(as of 1949), the

Cleveland Institute of Music The Cleveland Institute of Music (CIM) is a private music conservatory in Cleveland, Ohio. Founded in 1920 by Ernest Bloch, it enrolls 325 students in the conservatory and approximately 1,500 students in the preparatory and continuing educatio ...

(1964–1967), and also at Queens College beginning in 1969. After moving to Boston he taught chamber music at Boston University until his death in 1980. Composer

Awilda Villarini Awilda M. Villarini-Garcia (born 6 February 1940) is a Puerto Rican composer and pianist who publishes and performs under the name "Awilda Villarini." Villarini was born in Patillas. Her first piano teacher was her mother, who was a church orga ...

was one of his students.

Selected compositions

;Orchestra * ''Arabesque'' * ''Jolly Good Fellow'' * ''Little March'' ;String quartet * ''Four Bagatelles'' for string quartet (published 1943) :# Coquette :# Giocoso :# The Veiled Picture :# Mood * ''Four Characteristic Pieces'' for string quartet (published 1935) :# Little March :# Magyar :# The Ancient (Based on a Hebrew Melody) :# Cossack ;Violin and piano * ''Arabesque'' (published 1945) * ''Banjo and Fiddle'' (published 1945) * ''Bizarresque'' (published 1928) * ''Caprice'' (published 1949) * ''Cossack'' (published 1929) * ''Happy-Go-Lucky'' (published 1949) * ''Juanita'' (published 1945) * ''Moment Musical'' (published 1949) * ''Out of the East'' (published 1927) * ''Pantomime'' (published 1937) * ''Polka'' for violin and piano accompaniment or optional violin accompaniment (published 1949) * ''Prayer'' (published 1945) * ''Russian Lullaby'' (published 1927) * ''Three Violin Pieces in the First Position'' with piano accompaniment or optional violin accompaniment (published 1945) :# Donkey Doodle :# Contra Dance :# Peter Rabbit * ''Valse Tendre'' (published 1930)

References

External links

Bio of William with portrait

William Kroll
at G. Schirmer 1901 births 1980 deaths American male composers American male violinists Cleveland Institute of Music faculty 20th-century American violinists 20th-century American composers 20th-century American male musicians {{US-composer-20thC-stub