Walter Johannes Damrosch

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Walter Johannes Damrosch (born in Breslau, Prussia, January 30, 1862; died in New York City, December 22, 1950) was an American symphony conductor.

Damrosch was best known as a conductor of Richard Wagner. He was also a pioneer in the performance of music on the radio, and as such became one of the chief popularizers of classical music in the United States.

Though he is now remembered almost exclusively as a conductor, before his radio broadcasts he was equally well-known as a composer. The 1911 Britannica stated:

Damrosch... the eminent conductor of the New York Symphony Orchestra, and of various operatic undertakings, has established his position as an original and poetic composer, not only by his opera, The Scarlet Letter, but by such songs as the intensely dramatic Danny Deever.

Damrosch went on to compose operas based on stories such as Cyrano de Bergerac (1913) and The Man Without a Country (1937). Those operas are very seldom performed now. His Wagner recordings are still widely available.

[edit] Work on Broadway

• The Dove of Peace (1912) - opera/musical - composer and co-librettist
• Electra (1918 revival) - play - incidental music composer

[edit] Educator/Popularizer

Damrosch was the National Broadcasting Company's music director under David Sarnoff, and from 1928 to 1942, he hosted the network's Music Appreciation Hour, a popular series of radio lectures on classic music aimed at students. (The show was broadcast during school hours, and teachers were provided textbooks and worksheets by the network.)

[edit] References

• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.

Preceded by Emil Paur

Musical Directors, New York Philharmonic 1902–1903

Succeeded by Vasily Safonov