Alexander Raab was a Hungarian-American pianist and distinguished piano teacher.

Alexander Raab was born in Győr

Gyor

-Climate:-Main sights:The ancient core of the city is Káptalan Hill at the confluence of three rivers: the Danube, Rába and Rábca. Püspökvár, the residence of Győr’s bishops can be easily recognised by its incomplete tower. Győr’s oldest buildings are the 13th-century dwelling tower and the...

 (also known as Raab), Hungary

Hungary

Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...

. He studied at the Vienna Conservatory under Hans Schmitt (1835–1907), Robert Fuchs

Robert Fuchs

Robert Fuchs was an Austrian composer and music teacher.As Professor of music theory at the Vienna Conservatory, Fuchs taught many notable composers, while he was himself a highly regarded composer in his lifetime....

 and Theodor Leschetizky and became acquainted with Johannes Brahms

Johannes Brahms

Johannes Brahms was a German composer and pianist, and one of the leading musicians of the Romantic period. Born in Hamburg, Brahms spent much of his professional life in Vienna, Austria, where he was a leader of the musical scene...

. He presented recitals with the violinist Jan Kubelík

Jan Kubelík

Jan Kubelík was a Czech violinist and composer.-Biography:He was born in Michle . His father, a gardener by occupation, was an amateur violinist. He taught his two sons the violin and after discovering the talent of Jan, who was aged five at the time, arranged for him to study with Karel Weber and...

 in England, Russia, Germany and France.

He emigrated to the USA in 1915, and became Head of the Piano Department at Chicago Musical College

Chicago Musical College

Chicago Musical College is a division of Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt UniversityIt was founded in 1867, less than four decades after the city of Chicago was incorporated...

, before moving to Berkeley, California

Berkeley, California

Berkeley is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington...

, where he became esteemed as one of the best piano teachers on the West Coast.

He performed concertos with the Tonkünstler Orchestra

Tonkünstler Orchestra

The Tonkünstler-Orchester Niederösterreich is an Austrian orchestra based in Vienna and St. Pölten, Lower Austria.-Origin of the name:The orchestra's name has its origins in the Tonkünstler-Sozietät, Wien, which was organizing concerts in the era of Haydn and Mozart...

 of Vienna, Chicago Symphony Orchestra

Chicago Symphony Orchestra

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Chicago, Illinois. It is one of the five American orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five". Founded in 1891, the Symphony makes its home at Orchestra Hall in Chicago and plays a summer season at the Ravinia Festival...

, Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra

Minnesota Orchestra

The Minnesota Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Minneapolis, Minnesota.Emil Oberhoffer founded the orchestra as the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra in 1903, and it gave its first performance on November 5 of that year. In 1968 the orchestra changed to its name to the Minnesota Orchestra...

, and London Symphony Orchestra

London Symphony Orchestra

The London Symphony Orchestra is a major orchestra of the United Kingdom, as well as one of the best-known orchestras in the world. Since 1982, the LSO has been based in London's Barbican Centre.-History:...

. Leopold Godowsky

Leopold Godowsky

Leopold Godowsky was a famed Polish American pianist, composer, and teacher. One of the most highly regarded performers of his time, he became known for his theories concerning the application of relaxed weight and economy of motion in piano playing, principles later propagated by Godowsky's...

 dedicated his 1931 transcription of Adolf von Henselt

Adolf von Henselt

Adolf von Henselt was a German composer and pianist.-Life:Henselt was born at Schwabach, in Bavaria. At the age of three he began to learn the violin, and at five the piano under Frau von Fladt...

’s Etude in F-sharp major (Si oiseau j'etais), Op. 2, No. 6, to Raab.

Alexander Raab’s piano students included Ernst Bacon

Ernst Bacon

Ernst Lecher Bacon was an American composer, pianist, and conductor. A prolific author, Bacon composed over 250 songs over his career. He was awarded three Guggenheim Fellowships and a Pulitzer Scholarship in 1932 for his Second Symphony.-Biography:Ernst Bacon was born in Chicago, Illinois, on May...

, Vera Bradford

Vera Bradford

Vera Florence Bradford was an Australian classical pianist and teacher, with a very long career. Her playing was admired for its depth and beauty of tone, classical unity and tremendous power....

, George J. Buelow, Muriel Kerr, Wanda Krasoff (who had been referred to Raab by Josef Hofmann), Mortimer Markoff, Sumner Marshall, Robert Owens, and Allan Willman. His pupils also studied under teachers such as Alfred Cortot

Alfred Cortot

Alfred Denis Cortot was a Franco-Swiss pianist and conductor. He is one of the most renowned 20th-century classical musicians, especially valued for his poetic insight in Romantic period piano works, particularly those of Chopin and Schumann.-Early life and education:Born in Nyon, Vaud, in the...

, Nadia Boulanger

Nadia Boulanger

Nadia Boulanger was a French composer, conductor and teacher who taught many composers and performers of the 20th century.From a musical family, she achieved early honours as a student at the Paris Conservatoire, but believing that her talent as a composer was inferior to that of her younger...

, Rudolph Ganz

Rudolph Ganz

Rudolph Ganz was a Swiss pianist, conductor and composer. He claimed direct descent from Charlemagne.-Biography:...

, Percy Grainger

Percy Grainger

George Percy Aldridge Grainger , known as Percy Grainger, was an Australian-born composer, arranger and pianist. In the course of a long and innovative career he played a prominent role in the revival of interest in British folk music in the early years of the 20th century. He also made many...

, Ernest Hutcheson

Ernest Hutcheson

Ernest Hutcheson was an Australian pianist, composer and teacher.Hutcheson was born in Melbourne, and toured there as a child prodigy. He later travelled to Leipzig and entered the Leipzig Conservatorium at the age of fourteen to study with Carl Reinecke and Bernhard Stavenhagen, a pupil of Franz...

, and Paul Wells.

He made a small number of early Duo-Art and Welte Mignon piano roll recordings, with music of Chopin

Frédéric Chopin

Frédéric François Chopin was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist. He is considered one of the great masters of Romantic music and has been called "the poet of the piano"....

 (Piano Sonata No. 1 in B flat minor Funeral March), Liszt

Franz Liszt

Franz Liszt ; ), was a 19th-century Hungarian composer, pianist, conductor, and teacher.Liszt became renowned in Europe during the nineteenth century for his virtuosic skill as a pianist. He was said by his contemporaries to have been the most technically advanced pianist of his age...

 (Hungarian Rhapsody

Hungarian Rhapsodies

Hungarian Rhapsody redirects here. For the 1979 Hungarian film Hungarian Rhapsody . For the 1928 German film Ungarische Rhapsodie.The Hungarian Rhapsodies, S.244, R106, is a set of 19 piano pieces based on Hungarian folk themes, composed by Franz Liszt during 1846-1853, and later in 1882 and 1885...

 No. 5 in E minor), Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...

, Brahms, and some salon pieces by minor composers. These recordings appear on CD alongside such distinguished names as Alfred Cortot, Guiomar Novaes

Guiomar Novaes

Guiomar Novaes was a Brazilian pianist noted for individuality of tone and phrasing, singing line, and a subtle and nuanced approach to her interpretations...

, Ignaz Friedman

Ignaz Friedman

Ignaz Friedman Ignaz Friedman Ignaz Friedman (also spelled by languages Ignace or Ignacy; exactly Solomon (Salomon) Isaac Freudman(n), (February 13, 1882January 26, 1948) was a Polish pianist and composer. Critics (e.g. Harold C. Schonberg) and colleagues (e.g...

, Arthur Friedheim

Arthur Friedheim

Arthur Friedheim was a Russian-born pianist, conductor and composer who was one of Franz Liszt's foremost pupils.Friedheim was born in Saint Petersburg in 1859. He began serious study of music at age eight...

, Vladimir de Pachmann

Vladimir de Pachmann

Vladimir von Pachmann or Pachman was a pianist of Russian-German ethnicity, especially noted for performing the works of Chopin, and also for his eccentric on-stage style.-Biography:...

, Ferruccio Busoni

Ferruccio Busoni

Ferruccio Busoni was an Italian composer, pianist, editor, writer, piano and composition teacher, and conductor.-Biography:...

, Josef Hofmann and Harold Bauer

Harold Bauer

Harold Bauer was a noted pianist who began his musical career as a violinist.Harold Bauer was born in London; his father was a German violinist and his mother was English. He took up the study of the violin under the direction of his father and Adolf Pollitzer. He made his debut as a violinist in...

.

Sources

• Music and Dance in California and the West, Richard Drake Sauners