- Frederik Prausnitz
Frederik William Prausnitz (
August 26 ,1920 , Cologne -November 12 ,2004 , Lewes, Delaware) 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 fromCologne toPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania in 1937 because of deep disagreements with theNazi regime. Upon graduation from theJuilliard School he won a conducting competition sponsored by theDetroit Symphony Orchestra in 1943, taught at Juilliard for some twenty years in the 1950s and 1960s, took over as conductor of the New England Conservatory Orchestra inBoston, Massachusetts , and eventually moved toLondon where he was a staff conductor with theBBC Symphony Orchestra . After his return to the US he was the Music Director of the Syracuse Symphony for three years, then joined the faculty of the Peabody Conservatory inBaltimore, Maryland where he remained until his retirement in 1998. Noted especially for his commitment to contemporary music, he was also a noted exponent of the music ofGustav Mahler . He wrote a biography ofRoger Sessions and a conducting textbook, "Score and Podium." He adopted the unusual form of his first name after seeing an Italian concert poster with that mis-spelling.References
* [http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/22/arts/music/22prausnitz.html?_r=1&oref=slogin New York Times Obituary of 22 November 2004, accessed 17 August 2008]
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