Modest Altschuler

{{Short description|Cellist, orchestral conductor, and composer}} {{Infobox musical artist | honorific_prefix = | name = Modest Altschuler | honorific_suffix = | image = Modest Altschuler, Russian symphony orchestra conductor (SAYRE 226).jpg | image_upright = | image_size = | landscape =  | alt = | caption = Altschuler, 1911 | background = non_vocal_instrumentalist | native_name = | native_name_lang = | birth_name = | alias = | birth_date = {{Birth date|1873|02|15}} | birth_place = Mogilev | origin = | death_date = {{Death date and age|1963|09|12|1873|02|15}} | death_place = Los Angeles | genre = Classical | occupation = Cellist, orchestral conductor, and composer | instrument = Cello | years_active =  | label = Columbia | past_member_of = Russian Symphony Orchestra Society | website =  | module = | module2 = | module3 = }}

'''Modest (Moisei Isaacovich) Altschuler''' (February 15, 1873{{spaced ndash}}September 12, 1963) was a cellist, orchestral conductor, and composer.<ref name=Slatkin>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=K7os-1XoxAYC&pg=PT32 | title=Conducting Business: Unveiling the Mystery Behind the Maestro | isbn=9781476821320 | last1=Slatkin | first1=Leonard | date=July 2012 | publisher=Amadeus Press }}</ref>

He was born in Mogilev, then part of the Russian Empire, now in Belarus, into a Jewish family.<ref name="ERJ_A">{{cite web|url=http://www.jewishgen.org/Belarus/rje_a.htm |title=Russian Jewish Encyclopedia |publisher=Jewishgen.org |date= |accessdate=2012-01-04}}</ref> He studied at the Moscow Conservatory and emigrated to the United States in 1893.<ref name=Slatkin />

In 1903 Altschuler organized the Russian Symphony Orchestra Society of New York City,<ref name=Slatkin /> which for two decades toured the United States featuring performances and compositions by leading contemporary Russians. Among the Orchestra's notable premieres were Sergei Prokofiev Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 1 in D-flat major, Op. 10, which was performed at Carnegie Hall in New York on December 10, 1918 and Mussorgsky's ''Prelude to Khovanshchina'', which Altschuler presented at Carnegie Hall on February 25, 1905. The Orchestra was among the first established orchestral ensembles to record for the gramophone; Columbia discs of short pieces by Tchaikovsky, Eduard Lassen and others date from 1911 and 1912. Their most important disc was the first recording of Mikhail Glinka's orchestral fantasy ''Kamarinskaya'', complete on two sides, recorded on 26 June 1911. Nathaniel Shilkret, a member of the Orchestra, notes in his autobiography<ref name=shilkret1>Shilkret, Nathaniel, ed. Shell, Niel and Barbara Shilkret, ''Nathaniel Shilkret: Sixty Years in the Music Business'', Scarecrow Press, Lanham, Maryland, 2005, pp. 14--15. {{ISBN|0-8108-5128-8}}</ref> that soloists in the Orchestra included Mischa Elman, Josef Lhevinne, Sergei Rachmaninoff, and Vassily Safanov. Shilkret also noted that the Orchestra "played for the great ballerina Pavlova and her partner Mordkin [1910]."<ref name=shilkret1/>

Despite his rigorous classical training, Altschuler was not averse to modernist experimentation. The Symphony's March 1915 New York premiere of Alexander Scriabin's ''Promethee: Le Poeme de Feu'' (''Prometheus: The Poem of Fire'') with Marguerite Volavy as pianist, featured a newly invented device, the chromola, which rendered musical tones in color.<ref>http://home.tiscali.nl/cretien/pub/synleon99.htm{{dead link|date=December 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://monoskop.org/Chromola | title=Chromola - Monoskop }}</ref>

After disbanding the orchestra on the eve of the first World War, Altschuler moved to California, where he built a notable reputation as a teacher and performer. With help from his cousin, film executive Joe Aller, he composed and performed in film scores, including ''The Sea Hawk'' (1924), ''Dawn to Dawn'' (1933), ''It's All in Your mind'' (1938), ''Buffalo Bill Rides Again'' (1947), and ''Song of My Heart'' (1948), He was also active in southern California's musical community. In 1926, he organized the Glendale Symphony Orchestra.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.alextheatre.org/gso.html | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051101005736/http://www.alextheatre.org/gso.html | archive-date=2005-11-01 | url-status=usurped | title=Alex Theatre - Glendale Symphony Orchestra }}</ref>

Altschuler founded a musical dynasty which includes his niece Eleanor Aller, his grand-nephew symphony conductor Leonard Slatkin,<ref name=Slatkin /> cellist Frederick Zlotkin,<ref>http://home.tiscali.nl/cretien/pub/synleon99.htm{{dead link|date=December 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}: cannot access 2013-01-24.</ref> violinist Judith Aller, singer/songwriter Jody Cormack and composer Dylan Mattingly. Aller and her husband Felix Slatkin were principals in the Hollywood String Quartet<ref>W.D., [http://ronpenndorf.com/journalofrecordedmusic4.html The Hollywood String Quartet] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050224191221/http://ronpenndorf.com/journalofrecordedmusic4.html |date=2005-02-24 }}, ronpenndorf.com.</ref><ref>Peter Gutmann, [http://www.classicalnotes.net/reviews/hollywood.html The Hollywood String Quartet], classicalnotes.com</ref> one of America's most accomplished classical ensembles in the period 1947-1961.

Modest Altschuler died in Los Angeles on September 12, 1963.<ref>Cowden, p. 40</ref>

==References== ===Citations=== {{reflist}}

===Bibliography=== *{{cite book|chapter=Altschuler, Modest|title=Concert and Opera Conductors: A Bibliography of Biographical Materials|year=1987|isbn=9780313256202|publisher=Bloomsbury Academic|editor=Robert H. Cowden}} {{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Altschuler, Modest}} Category:1873 births Category:1963 deaths Category:People from Mogilev Category:20th-century classical composers Category:Moscow Conservatory alumni Category:Belarusian Jews Category:Jewish American classical musicians Category:American people of Belarusian-Jewish descent Category:Male classical composers Category:20th-century American composers Category:20th-century American male composers Category:Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the United States