{{Short description|American violinist and composer 1883/4 – 1962)}} alt=Max Donner in 1914|thumb|Donner in 1914 '''Max Donner''' (22 May 1883/4 – 30 May 1962) was an American violinist, composer, conductor, and teacher of violin, chamber music, and composition.
== Life and career == The son of Adolph and Bertha Donner, he grew up in New York City and studied violin with Henry Schradieck.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Fredricks |first=Jessica M. |title=California Composers: Biographical Notes |publisher=California Federation of Music Clubs |year=1934 |location=San Francisco |page=11}}</ref> At age fifteen,<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |date=June 14, 1905 |title=Max Donner, A Prize Winner |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dXK8cIBCOjkC&pg=RA23-PA17 |journal=Musical Courier |volume=50 |issue=24 |page=17 |via=Google Books}}</ref> Donner traveled to Europe and studied at Berlin’s Stern Conservatory under Gustav Hollaender (violin) and Hans Pfitzner (composition). At Stern, Donner was the first American to be awarded the Gustav Hollaender Medal. He then studied with César Thomson and Eugène Ysaÿe in Brussels, where he won first prize in violin at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels.<ref name=":3">{{Cite book |last=DuPree |first=Mary |title=Musical Americans: A Biographical Dictionary, 1918–1926 |publisher=Fallen Leaf Press |year=1997 |isbn=9780914913139 |location=Berkeley, CA |pages=44–45}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite journal |date=May 22, 1926 |title=Donner Violin Recital; Max Donner, Violinist |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kqIViJbSp0AC&pg=RA20-PA21 |journal=Pacific Coast Musician |volume=15 |issue=2 |pages=8, 10 |via=Google Books}}</ref>
Following a tour of Europe as a violin soloist, Donner returned to the United States, where he continued to give recitals, including with Ernestine Schumann-Heink.<ref name=":3" /> After playing violin in the Philadelphia Orchestra from 1907 to 1908,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kupferberg |first=Herbert |url=https://archive.org/details/thosefabulousphi0000kupf_o6x3/page/220/mode/2up |title=Those Fabulous Philadelphians: The Life and Times of a Great Orchestra |publisher=W. H. Allen |year=1970 |isbn=9780491003940 |location=London |page=221 |via=Internet Archive}}</ref> Donner served as the concertmaster of the Seattle Symphony under the direction of conductor Henry Kimball Hadley.<ref name=":3" />
From 1918 to 1923, Donner was head of violin and ensemble at West Virginia University and director of the University Philharmonic Orchestra.<ref name=":3" /><ref>{{Cite book |last=Brown |first=Clifford W. |title=Music at West Virginia University, 1897–1987 |publisher=West Virginia University Publications Services |year=1989 |isbn=9780925500007 |pages=11, 60}}</ref> He then moved to California, where he joined the violin section of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Hollywood Bowl Orchestra and taught violin, at one time heading the violin department of the Los Angeles Conservatory of Music. As a conductor, Donner worked with Los Angeles’ WPA Federal Symphony Orchestra, and led the Los Angeles Philharmonic in performances of his own orchestral compositions. He also gave composition lessons.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":2" /><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Slim |first=H. Colin |date=2009 |title=Lessons with Stravinsky: The Notebook of Earnest Andersson (1878–1943) |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/jams.2009.62.2.323 |journal=Journal of the American Musicological Society |volume=62 |issue=2 |pages=337–342 |doi=10.1525/jams.2009.62.2.323 |jstor=10.1525/jams.2009.62.2.323 |url-access=subscription }}</ref>
In 1936, Pierre Monteux premiered Donner’s ''Chinese Rhapsody'' with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Canarina |first=John |url=https://archive.org/details/pierremonteuxmai00cana/page/128/mode/2up |title=Pierre Monteux, Maître |publisher=Amadeus Press |year=2003 |isbn=9781574670820 |location=Pompton Plains, NJ |page=128 |via=Internet Archive}}</ref>
Donner’s wife, Angeline, was a pianist with whom he had five children. She performed with him in recitals.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":4">{{Cite web |date= |title=Max Donner Collection of Sheet Music |url=https://scout.lib.utk.edu/repositories/2/resources/5371 |access-date=July 7, 2023 |website=SCOUT – Special Collections Online at UT}}</ref> Donner died in 1962.
== Compositions == Early on, Donner published compositions for violin and piano with Carl Fischer, including a ''Sonata'' for violin and piano, Op. 40 (1908).<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://imslp.org/wiki/Handbuch_der_musikalischen_Literatur_(Whistling,_Carl_Friedrich) |title=Handbuch Der Musikalischen Literatur |publisher=Friedrich Hofmeister |year=1906–1921 |edition=Supplements 9-12 of 3rd |location=Leipzig |via=IMSLP}}</ref><ref name=":5" /> In ''The Literature of Chamber Music'' (1997),<ref>{{Cite book |last=Cohn |first=Arthur |url=https://archive.org/details/literatureofcham0001cohn/page/712/mode/2up |title=The Literature of Chamber Music |publisher=Hinshaw Music |year=1997 |volume=1 |location=Chapel Hill, NC |page=713 |isbn=9780937276167 |via=Internet Archive}}</ref> Arthur Cohn writes of the sonata:<blockquote> Donner's music has the darker aspects of Rachmaninoff's. It has strong melodic characteristics, and these are impressively detailed, always with the full sweep of violin lyricism and in dialogue and combination with rich textural material for the piano.</blockquote>He also wrote violin concertos; orchestral works, including Lyster Symphony in D minor, symphonic poems, suites, and overtures; and additional chamber music.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":5">{{Cite web |title=List of works by Max Donner |url=https://imslp.org/wiki/List_of_works_by_Max_Donner |access-date=July 7, 2023 |website=International Music Score Library Project}}</ref>
== Sheet music collection == Donner’s manuscripts and music collection are contained in the Max Donner Collection of Sheet Music at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.<ref name=":4" />
== References == <!-- Inline citations added to your article will automatically display here. See en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WP:REFB for instructions on how to add citations. --> {{reflist}}
== External links == * [https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/85380996/max-donner Max Donner] at Find a Grave * [https://scout.lib.utk.edu/repositories/2/resources/5371 Max Donner Collection of Sheet Music] at Betsey B. Creekmore Special Collections and University Archives, University of Tennessee, Knoxville * Free scores by Max Donner at the International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Donner, Max}} Category:1962 deaths Category:20th-century American classical violinists Category:20th-century American conductors (music) Category:20th-century American classical composers Category:20th-century American male composers Category:American male conductors (music) Category:American male classical violinists Category:Concertmasters Category:Violin educators Category:Royal Conservatory of Brussels alumni Category:Classical musicians from California Category:Classical musicians from New York (state) Category:Musicians from New York City Category:Musicians from Los Angeles Category:Composers for violin Category:Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale) Category:Year of birth uncertain Category:Players of the Los Angeles Philharmonic