Arnold Volpe (July 9, 1869 – February 2, 1940) was a Russian-born

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...

composer and conductor. He composed mainly

chamber music Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of Musical instrument, instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a Great chamber, palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music ...

, including a

string quartet The term string quartet refers to either a type of musical composition or a group of four people who play them. Many composers from the mid-18th century onwards wrote string quartets. The associated musical ensemble consists of two Violin, violini ...

, as well as a

mazurka The Mazurka ( Polish: ''mazurek'') is a Polish musical form based on stylised folk dances in triple meter, usually at a lively tempo, with character defined mostly by the prominent mazur's "strong accents unsystematically placed on the seco ...

for

violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...

and

orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * String instruments, such as the violin, viola, cello, ...

. He founded both the

Lewisohn Stadium Lewisohn Stadium was an amphitheater and athletic facility built on the campus of the City College of New York (CCNY). It opened in 1915 and was demolished in 1973. History The Doric-colonnaded amphitheater was built between Amsterdam and Conv ...

Concerts in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

and the symphony orchestra at the

University of Miami The University of Miami (UM, UMiami, Miami, U of M, and The U) is a private university, private research university in Coral Gables, Florida, United States. , the university enrolled 19,852 students in two colleges and ten schools across over ...

, and he conducted five productions for the

Washington National Opera Washington National Opera (WNO) is an American opera company in Washington, D.C. Formerly the Opera Society of Washington and the Washington Opera, the company received Congressional designation as the National Opera Company in 2000. Performance ...

, a semi-professional company founded in 1919 and not associated with its current namesake, beginning late in its first season.McPherson, Jim, "Mr. Meek Goes to Washington: The Story of the Small-Potatoes Canadian Baritone Who Founded America’s 'National' Opera," ''The Opera Quarterly,'' volume 20, no. 2, Spring 2004 He was related to the composer

Stefan Wolpe Stefan Wolpe (25 August 1902, Berlin – 4 April 1972, New York City) was a German-born American composer. He was associated with interdisciplinary modernism, with affiliations ranging from the Bauhaus, Berlin agitprop theater and the kibbutz mov ...

Biography

Early life

Arnold was born Aaron-David Levy-Itzkovich Volpe in

Kaunas Kaunas (; ) is the second-largest city in Lithuania after Vilnius, the fourth largest List of cities in the Baltic states by population, city in the Baltic States and an important centre of Lithuanian economic, academic, and cultural life. Kaun ...

Kovno Governorate Kovno Governorate was an administrative-territorial unit (''guberniya'') of the Russian Empire, with its capital in Kovno (Kaunas). It was formed on 18 December 1842 by Tsar Nicholas I of Russia, Nicholas I from the western part of Vilna Govern ...

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

on July 9, 1869. His parents were Lewis (Itsik Levik) Volpe and Ella (Elka Reiza) Gabrilowitsch. He was Jewish. He received his basic musical education at the

Warsaw Conservatory The Chopin University of Music (, UMFC) is a musical conservatorium and academy located in central Warsaw, Poland. It is the oldest and largest music school in Poland, and one of the largest in Europe. He then relocated to Saint Petersburg in 1887 to study violin at the

Saint Petersburg Conservatory The N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov Saint Petersburg State Conservatory () (formerly known as the Petrograd Conservatory and Leningrad Conservatory) is a school of music in Saint Petersburg, Russia. In 2004, the conservatory had around 275 faculty member ...

, where he became the protege of the director

Anton Rubinstein Anton Grigoryevich Rubinstein (; ) was a Russian pianist, composer and conductor who founded the Saint Petersburg Conservatory. He was the elder brother of Nikolai Rubinstein, who founded the Moscow Conservatory. As a pianist, Rubinstein ran ...

. He studied there under

Leopold Auer Leopold von Auer (; June 7, 1845July 15, 1930) was a Hungarian violinist, academic, conductor, composer, and instructor. Many of his students went on to become prominent concert performers and teachers. Early life and career Auer was born in ...

and Nikolai Galkin, graduating with high standing in May 1891. After a brief tour, at the suggestion of Rubinstein he returned to the conservatory and engaged in a deeper study of harmony and counterpoint with Nicolai Soloviev which lasted until 1897 when he graduated as a composer. He emigrated to the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

in July 1898. His wife, who he married in New York in 1902, was named Marie Michelson and was also born in Kaunas. Volpe became a naturalized US citizen in 1911.

Music career

In New York in 1904 Volpe founded an orchestra for young musicians, the Arnold Volpe Symphony (sometimes called the Young Men's Symphony Orchestra), which eventually grew to a roster of 90 musicians. It was apparently founded and operated with the support of Alfred A. Seligman, a banker and amateur musician. Among the notable young musicians in his Symphony Orchestra were

Richard Burgin Richard Burgin (October 11, 1892 – April 29, 1981) was a Polish-American violinist, best known as associate conductor and the concertmaster of the Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO). Early life Burgin was born in Siedlce, Poland, and first p ...

and

Nat Shilkret Nathaniel Shilkret (December 25, 1889 – February 18, 1982) was an American musician, composer, conductor and musical director. Early career Shilkret (originally named Natan Schüldkraut) was born in New York City, United States, to parents w ...

. The orchestra received good reviews for the high quality of its programming and performances. After Seligman died in a car accident in June 1912, a large donation of funds and his musical instrument collection passed on to the orchestra. At around that time, Volpe was advocating for more venues for sophisticated music for a broad audience, noting that popular tastes were changing. The orchestra disbanded in 1914. That same year Volpe and family traveled to Europe to visit relatives and musical acquaintances. Marie had planned to spend at least three years on the continent studying vocal technique. After visiting relatives in France and Belgium, they were in

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

when the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

started. At first, Volpe was not worried, but as conditions deteriorated he retreated to London where the family sailed back to the United States. Arnold Volpe in 1919 with raised arms

In June 1918, with the support of philanthropist Minnie Guggenheimer, he became the first conductor at the new

orchestra. According to

Edwin Franko Goldman Edwin Franko Goldman (January 1, 1878 – February 21, 1956) was an American composer and conductor. One of the most significant American band composers of the early 20th century, Goldman composed over 150 works, but is best known for his March ...

, big-band summer concert series of this type were still relatively new, and Volpe's was one of the first of its kind after Goldman's own. Rather than playing the type of stirring patriotic and popular music common to outdoor concerts, Volpe's idea was to present a more challenging programme of Classical and Operatic works to a broad audience. Although critics expected it to fail, it was very successful and attracted large audiences of thousands. After Volpe conducted it for its first two summer seasons, in 1920

Walter Henry Rothwell Walter Henry Rothwell (22 September 1872 – 13 March 1927) was an English conductor. Biography He was born in London on 22 September 1872 to an English father and an Austrian mother. After initial training from his mother, who had been a ...

took it over, followed by

Victor Herbert Victor August Herbert (February 1, 1859 – May 26, 1924) was an American composer, Cello, cellist and conducting, conductor of English and Irish ancestry and German training. Although Herbert enjoyed important careers as a cello soloist and co ...

and Henry Hadley in 1922. In 1922 he relocated with his family to

Kansas City, Missouri Kansas City, Missouri, abbreviated KC or KCMO, is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri by List of cities in Missouri, population and area. The city lies within Jackson County, Missouri, Jackson, Clay County, Missouri, Clay, and Pl ...

where he became the new director of the Kansas City Conservatory of Music. In 1925 he and his wife toured the west coast and he was guest conductor at the

Hollywood Bowl The Hollywood Bowl is an amphitheatre and Urban park, public park in the Hollywood Hills of Los Angeles, California. It was named one of the 10 best live music venues in the United States by ''Rolling Stone'' magazine in 2018 and was listed on ...

for their summer concert series. After that tour the family settled in

Miami, Florida Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...

, where in 1926 Volpe helped found the Miami Symphony Orchestra and became an instructor in the

's music program. He died on February 2, 1940, in Miami. A generous memorial fund was also set up in his name in 1940, to be administered by the university and a panel of musicians including

Mischa Elman Mischa (Mikhail Saulovich) Elman (; January 20, 1891April 5, 1967) was a Russian-American violinist famed for his passionate style, beautiful tone, and impeccable artistry and musicality. Early life Moses or Moishe Elman was born to a Jewish fa ...

and

Serge Koussevitzky Serge Koussevitzky (born Sergey Aleksandrovich Kusevitsky;Koussevitzky's original Russian forename is usually transliterated into English as either "Sergei" or "Sergey"; however, he himself adopted the French spelling "Serge", using it in his sig ...

The fund's mandate included the support of musical events at the university and the creation of a new building in the music department, the Arnold Volpe Building. Marie Volpe died in 1970.

References

External links

*
Arnold Volpe papers
in the

archive {{DEFAULTSORT:Volpe, Arnold 1869 births 1940 deaths American male composers American composers American conductors (music) American male conductors (music) Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the United States Musicians from Kaunas Lithuanian Jews Saint Petersburg Conservatory alumni

Biography

Early life

Music career

References

Further reading

External links