Margarete Dessoff

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Margarete Dessoff in 1926

Emma Margarete "Gretchen" Dessoff (11 June 1874, Vienna - 27 November 1944, Locarno, Switzerland) was a German choral conductor who was a pioneer of women's choruses in classical music. In 1924 with Angela Diller, she formed the Adesdi Chorus of Women's Voices, with the name being formed from parts of each of the founder's names. This was renamed the Dessoff Choirs in 1929.

1 Life
2 References
3 External links

[edit] Life

[edit] Germany

The young Margarete Dessoff

Margarete Dessoff ( sometimes spelt Margarethe ) was born in Vienna and came to Frankfurt am Main when she was six years old, her father (Felix Otto Dessoff) having been appointed conductor of the Frankfurt Opera House. Margarete Dessoff studied voice and later directed the women's chorus at Dr. Hoch's Konservatorium in Frankfurt. Dessoff's singing career was cut short when a famous opera singer teaching at Dr. Hoch's apparently ruined her voice. She regained it through private lessons (with Jenny Hahn, a pupil of Julius Stockhausen), but had she not lost her voice she might never have become a well-known and well-loved choral director. In addition to the Dessoff'scher Frauenchor (first concert in 1907 at Dr. Hoch's Konservatorium), which quickly became famous throughout Germany, she also directed the Frankfurter Bachgemeinde for several years and in 1918 founded one of the first madrigal ensembles in Germany. The first public appearance by a woman's chorus in 1912 was conducted by her.

[edit] New York

During the time that Margarete Dessoff lived in Frankfurt, the Dessoff family home was across the street from the aunt and uncle of the American banker Felix Warburg. As a boy, Mr. Warburg came to know Margarete Dessoff from visits to his uncle's house, and it was this friendship which moved him to bring her to America for a holiday following the strain of the First World War. She remained in New York where she established the Madrigal Chorus of the Institute of Musical Art. Then in 1924 with Angela Diller, she formed the Adesdi Chorus of Women's Voices, with the name Adesdi being formed from parts of each of the founders' name. This was later renamed the Dessoff Choirs in 1929.

The Institute of Musical Art (later Juilliard School of Music) in New York had previously been founded in 1905 with the European conservatories as its model. Earlier, many young musicians had felt the need to study in Europe: American Edward MacDowell and Australian Percy Grainger both studied at the Konservatorium in Frankfurt. Having Clara Schumann on the faculty had made Dr. Hoch's Konservatorium very well known internationally: in 1890 there were 23 Americans and 46 from England studying there. Several teachers from Dr. Hoch's Konservatorium taught later at Juilliard and at the height of inflation in the 20's Margarete Dessoff answered an invitation to become chorus director there. She founded various choirs in the 20's: the women's choir Adesdi, the mixed choir The New York A Cappella Singers as well as the Vecchi Singers with whom she conducted the first American performance of Orazio Vecchi's L'Amfiparnaso in 1933.

Margarete Dessoff was committed to the performance of rarely heard early music as well as unknown works of young composers. Her artistically planned programs encouraged contemporary composers such as Hans Gál, Erwin Lendvai, Hugo Herrmann, Marion Bauer, Lazare Saminsky and others to write new music for choirs.

[edit] Retirement

Her newly founded choirs in New York flourished until her early retirement, due to an accident, in 1936. As a return to Nazi Germany was impossible for her, she retired to Locarno, Switzerland, where she died in 1944.

Her name is still lives on in New York where the Dessoff Choirs which she founded, still flourish.

[edit] References

Sabine Fröhlich: First Performance Anywhere: Margarete Dessoff (1874-1944), eine bedeutende Chordirigentin: Musiktheorie, 2005, Vol. 1, pp. 61-85.

Peter Cahn: Das Hoch'sche Konservatorium in Frankfurt am Main (1878-1978), Waldemar Kramer, Frankfurt am Main, 1979 ISBN 3782902149.

Joachim Draheim and Gerhard Albert Jahn (ed.): Otto Dessoff (1835-1892) Ein Dirigent, Komponist und Weggefährte von Johannes Brahms, Musikverlag Katzbichler, Munich, n. d. ISBN 3873975904.