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Born: August 26, 1920 - Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
Died: November 12, 2004 - Lewes, Delaware, USA |
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Frederik [Frederick] William Prausnitz was a German-born American conductor and teacher. His grandfather, Wilhelm Prausnitz, was the dean of the medical school at Graz, as well as a Privy Counsellor. His family, of Lutheran background, emigrated from Cologne to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1937 because of deep disagreements with the Nazi regime. He graduated from from the Juilliard School of Music in New York in 1945. He won a conducting competition sponsored by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra in 1943, and made his conducting debut with that orchestra in 1944.
Frederik Prausnitz was guest conductor with BBC Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, English Chamber Orchestra and many orchestras on the continent. He gave first European performances of music by Carter, Schuman, Sessions and Wolpe. He taught at Juilliard School of Music (1947-1949) and served also as Assistant Dean at there (1949-1961). He took over as conductor of the New England Conservatory Orchestra in Boston, Massachusetts (1961-1969), and eventually moved to London where he was a staff conductor with the BBC Symphony Orchestra. After his return to the USA he was the Music Director of the Syracuse Symphony for three years (1971-1974). In 1976 he joined the faculty of the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, Maryland; was Director of the Peabody Conservatory Symphony Orchestra (1976-1980); Director of Conducting Programs (from 1980); Conductor Laureate; Director of the Contemporary Music Ensemble at Peabody; and remained there until his retirement in 1998. Among his pupils there: James Burton: He was also Visiting lecturer at Harvard, and Sussex University.
Noted especially for his commitment to contemporary music, Frederik Prausnitz he gave the first USA performances of works by Arnold Schoenberg, Stockhausen, Varese, Anton Webern and Luigi Dallapiccola. He was also a devoted exponent of the music of Gustav Mahler. He wrote a biography of Roger Sessions and a conducting textbook, Score and Podium.
Recordings: William Walton's Facade; Works by Roger Sessions and other modern composers: Labels include Columbia, EMI, Angel, Philips and Argo. Publications: Score and Podium: a Complete Guide to Conducting (1983); Roger Sessions: a Critical Biography (1990). Honours include: Honorary Fellow, University of Sussex (1970); Gustav Mahler Medal of Honor of the Bruckner Society of America (1974).
Frederik Prausnitz was married to Margaret Britten Grenfell, and had a son and a daughter. He adopted the unusual form of his first name after seeing an Italian concert poster with that misspelling. |
