Margarete Dessoff
Encyclopedia
Locarno
Locarno is the capital of the Locarno district, located on the northern tip of Lake Maggiore in the Swiss canton of Ticino, close to Ascona at the foot of the Alps. It has a population of about 15,000...
, Switzerland) was a German choral conductor
Conducting
Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance by way of visible gestures. The primary duties of the conductor are to unify performers, set the tempo, execute clear preparations and beats, and to listen critically and shape the sound of the ensemble...
, singer, and voice teacher.
Germany
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
and came to Frankfurt am Main when she was six years old, her father (Felix Otto Dessoff
Felix Otto Dessoff
Felix Otto Dessoff was a German conductor and composer.-Biography:Dessoff was born in Leipzig and entered the conservatory there where he studied composition, piano and conducting with some of the foremost teachers of the day, including Ignaz Moscheles for piano and Moritz Hauptmann and Julius...
) having been appointed conductor of the Frankfurt Opera House. Margarete Dessoff studied voice with Gustav Gunz und Marie Schröder-Hanfstängl
Marie Hanfstängl
Marie Hanfstängl , born Marie Schroeder , was a notable German operatic soprano singer and singing teacher, whose career was mostly conducted in Germany....
(1892-97) at Dr. Hoch's Konservatorium
Hoch Conservatory
Dr. Hoch’s Konservatorium - Musikakademie was founded in Frankfurt am Main on September 22, 1878. Through the generosity of Frankfurter Joseph Hoch, who bequeathed the Conservatory one million German gold marks in his testament, a school for music and the arts was established for all age groups. ...
in Frankfurt and from 1912 directed the women's chorus there. Dessoff's singing career was cut short when a famous opera singer (probably Hanfstängl) teaching at Dr. Hoch's apparently ruined her voice. She regained it through private lessons (with Jenny Hahn, a pupil of Julius Stockhausen
Julius Stockhausen
Julius Christian Stockhausen was a German singer and singing master.- Life :Stockhausens' parents, Franz Stockhausen Sr...
), 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.
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 WarburgWarburg family
The Warburg family is a financial dynasty of German Jewish origin, noted for their accomplishments in physics, classical music, art history, pharmacology, physiology, finance, private equity and philanthropy. They are believed to be descended from the Venetian Jewish del Banco family, in the early...
. 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.
The Institute of Musical Art (later Juilliard School of Music) in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
had 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
Edward MacDowell
Edward Alexander MacDowell was an American composer and pianist of the Romantic period. He was best known for his second piano concerto and his piano suites "Woodland Sketches", "Sea Pieces", and "New England Idylls". "Woodland Sketches" includes his most popular short piece, "To a Wild Rose"...
and Australian 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...
both studied at the Konservatorium in Frankfurt. Having Clara Schumann
Clara Schumann
Clara Schumann was a German musician and composer, considered one of the most distinguished pianists of the Romantic era...
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. At the height of inflation in the 1920's Margarete Dessoff answered an invitation to become chorus director there, where she also established the Madrigal Chorus. She founded various other choirs in the 20's: 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; then in 1929 she founded a mixed voice choir, The New York A Cappella Singers, and in 1930 these two became "The Dessoff Choirs" which meant that both choirs gave their concerts together with programs that contained pieces for women's voices (sung by Adesdi) and for mixed voices (sung by the New York A Cappella Singers). She also founded the Vecchi Singers with whom she conducted the first American performance of Orazio Vecchi's
Orazio Vecchi
Orazio Vecchi was an Italian composer of the late Renaissance. He is most famous for his madrigal comedies, particularly L'Amfiparnaso.- Life :...
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
Hans Gál
Hans Gál was a composer, teacher and pianist.Gál was born to a Jewish family in the small village of Brunn am Gebirge, Niederösterreich, just outside Vienna. He was trained in that city at the New Vienna Conservatory where later he taught for some time. While a student he won the K. und K...
, Erwin Lendvai
Erwin Lendvai
Erwin Lendvai was a Hungarian composer and choral conductor. He was an uncle of the composer Kamilló Lendvay....
, Hugo Herrmann, Marion Bauer
Marion Bauer
Marion Eugénie Bauer was an American composer, teacher, writer, and music critic. A contemporary of Aaron Copland, Bauer played an active role in shaping American musical identity in the early half of the twentieth century....
, Lazare Saminsky
Lazare Saminsky
Lazare Saminsky, born Lazar Iosifovich Saminsky, was a performer, conductor and composer, especially of Jewish music.-Life:...
and others to write new music for choirs.
Retirement
Her newly founded choirs in New York flourished until her early retirement, due to an accident, in 1936. As a return to Nazi GermanyNazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
was impossible for her, she retired to Locarno
Locarno
Locarno is the capital of the Locarno district, located on the northern tip of Lake Maggiore in the Swiss canton of Ticino, close to Ascona at the foot of the Alps. It has a population of about 15,000...
, Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
, where she died in 1944.
Her name still lives on in New York where the Dessoff Choirs which she founded, still flourish.