Viennese born composer frederick loewe biography
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Frederick Loewe
Frederick Loewe was born in Vienna, Austria on June 10, 1901, and from the beginning was steeped in the Viennese musical style. His father was a popular operetta star, and when The Merry Widow arrived in Berlin, Loewe's father was Berlin's first Danilo. By the age of 15, "Fritz" had composed a hit popular song, "Katrina", and was getting considerable attention as a promising young piano virtuoso. Like the young Kurt Weill, who was one year his senior, Loewe studied in Berlin with the great Italian-German composer and pianist Ferruccio Busoni. He also studied with the pianist-composer Eugen d'Albert and the composer Emil von Rezniek. At this time, his great ambition was to become a famous concert pianist and he traveled to the United States in 1924. Unfortunately, success did not greet him in America, and in the years that followed he survived by taking a colorful variety of jobs. At one time he was a cowboy, and at another time a prizefighter.
Meanwhil
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In 1924, after touring the United States with his father, Loewe chose to stay in America intending to become a concert pianist and write for Broadway.
Instead, for the next decade, Loewe worked at a variety of odd jobs, including cattle punching, gold prospecting and prize fighting, as well as playing piano in German clubs in New York's Yorkville neighborhood and in movie theaters accompanying silent films. During the 1930's, he contributed music to a number of huvudgata revues and shows, none of which met with much success.
In 1942, Loewe approached Alan Lerner at the Lambs Club in New York to talk about collaborating on a show -- and thus began one of Broadway's most extraordinary and productive partnerships. Their first Broadway venture, What's Up?, opened on huvudgata in 1943 and ran for only 63 performances. It was followed two years later by The Day Before Spring, with choreography by Anthony Tudor, which ran for 167 performances. In 1947, Lerner and
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Frederick Loewe (1904-1988) was born in Vienna, Austria to Edmond Löwe, “an eminent Viennese operetta star who made his home in Berlin but traveled all over Europe and North and South America.” Learning to play piano by ear at age four, Loewe wrote compositions for his father’s music hall. He was steeped in the Viennese musical style. At fifteen, Loewe wrote a popular song, “Katrina,” that sold a million copies of sheet music. According to Masterworks Broadway, “He had advanced piano instruction with Ferruccio Busoni and Eugène d’Albert, and had already debuted as a soloist with the Berlin Philharmonic at thirteen before entering the music conservatory.” Loewe’s original dream was to become a concert pianist, and he arrived in America in 1923 with his father—he never returned to Austria. Loewe played a recital at town hall, but after it failed to lead to more engagement, he worked as a piano instructor, a cowboy, gold miner, and a mail carrier, before “eventually returning to New Yo