Paul Doktor: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 20:34, 27 September 2006

Revision as of 22:16, 27 September 2006

Line 1:

'''Paul Doktor''' ([[1917]] in [[Vienna]] - [[June 21]], [[1989]] in [[New York City]] was a notable [[violinist]] and [[orchestra conductor]].

PaulThe Doktorsone was born in Vienna in 1917 toof singer-pianist Georgine and violist Karl Doktor, violist and co-founder of the celebrated Adolf Busch String Quartet. Atat the age of five, heKarl began violin studies with his father, and received his diploma from the State Academy of Music in 1938. While still in his teens, he toured as a violinist with the Adolf Busch Chamber Orchestra, but the youthful performer's mastery of the viola came to the fore when, at a few days' notice, he was asked to take over from the ailing second violist in a performance of the Mendelssohn Quintet with the Busch Quartet. His achievement was so remarkable that he was invited to join the Quartet in presenting a series of Mozart quintets at London's Wigmore Hall. From then on, Paul Doktor stuck to the instrument fate had chosen for him, and became the first violist ever to have been awarded unanimously the First Prize at the International Music Competition in Geneva. He left Vienna in 1938 and from 1939 to 1947 was solo violist with the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra. He moved to the United States in 1947 and became an American citizen in 1952.

His American debut at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. was certainly auspicious: "Not for many years has so competent a master of the viola been heard in American concert halls", commented the Washington Post. From then on, he appeared widely as recitalist, soloist with orchestras and as a chamber musician. Paul Doktor was equally at home with the baroque, classical and modern repertoires. With Yaltah Menuhin, he introduced to American audiences a concerto by J.C.F. Bach for viola, pianoforte and orchestra, which he had discovered in Paris. He gave the world premiere of Quincy Porter's Concerto for Viola and Orchestra at the Columbia University American Music Festival and recorded Walter Piston's Viola Concerto with the Louisville Orchestra for their First Edition Record series. He also played the BBC premiere of Wilfred Josephs' concertante ("Mediatio di Beornmundo"), which he repeated for its American premiere in New York.

Line 7 ⟶ 9:

When not performing, he was a faculty member at the Juilliard School, The Mannes College of Music and New York University. He also taught at the Philadelphia Musical Academy and Farleigh Dickinson University and was a guest professor at the Montreal Conservatory. In appreciation of his diverse educational activities, he was recipient of the 1977 "Artist-Teacher of the Year" award, given annually by the American String Teachers Association to one outstanding contributor to string pedagogy in the world.

Paul Doktor died on June 21, 1989 in New York City.