Kurt Adler

Adler worked between 1907 and 1977 across conductor, pianist, musicologist, music director and musician and 1 further recorded occupations. This article rests on 70 catalogued compositions, 10 published texts, 2 issued recordings and 11 scholarly references drawn from named institutional registers. Every statement below returns to a source shown in the evidence panel; where the record is silent or divided, the article says so instead of resolving it.

• Name — Kurt Adler • Born — 1 March 1907 • Birthplace — Jindřichův Hradec, Austria-Hungary • Died — 21 September 1977 • Place of death — Butler, New Jersey, United States • Citizenship — Austrian American • Education — University of Vienna (MA) • Known for — Conductor and Chorus Master, New York Metropolitan Opera, 1943–1973 • Occupation — Conductor, Pianist, Chorus Master

Kurt Adler was born in Jindřichův Hradec, Bohemia, Austria-Hungary (now the Czech Republic) to a bourgeois Jewish family. He was the only child of Siegfried Adler (born 1876), a textile factory owner, and Olga (Fürth) Adler (born 1882). Both parents were murdered by the Gestapo during World War II, after they were deported in 1942, from Vienna, Austria, to Izbica concentration camp, which served as a transfer camp, to the Bełżec extermination camp in occupied Poland on May 15, 1942. His paternal grandparents, Jakob and Eveline Adler are buried in Neuhaus (now Jindřichův Hradec), Hebrew Cemetery. His maternal grandparents, Albert and Katherine Fürth are buried in Sušice, Czech Republic. During the 1930s many now-famous musicians, including Adler, emigrated to the United States to escape from Nazism. Adler left for the United States on October 9, 1938. He sailed from Rotterdam, Holland in 1938 on the "SS Statendam". He was naturalized on March 21, 1944.

Kurt Adler began studying music at age six under cantor Jacob Fürnberg, in Jindřichův Hradec. His first public appearance was at age fourteen. His entire musical education was in Vienna, Austria. Among his teachers were Richard Robert, Fanny Boehm-Kramer, Alexander Manhart (1875–1936) (piano); Karl Weigl (1881–1949), Guido Adler (1855–1941), Wilhelm Fischer (1886–1962) (theory); Ferdinand Foll (1867–1929), Hermann Weigert (1890–1955), and Erich Kleiber (1890–1956) (conducting). In 1925, he graduated from the classical Akademisches Gymnasium, Vienna. In 1927, he earned a degree in musicology from the University of Vienna, corresponding to Master of Arts, Philosophical Faculty of the University of Vienna.

Kurt Adler began his professional career in Germany on the musical staff of the Berlin State Opera. He later conducted at the New German Theatre in Prague and Städtische Oper in Berlin. He joined the Metropolitan Opera in 1943, under the management of Edward Johnson, then in conjunction with Rudolf Bing, from 1945 to 1973. He was chorusmaster and lead conductor. Maestro Adler's press announcement upon his recruitment as chorusmaster of the Metropolitan Opera in New York City said, "That since Giulio Setti's time, ten years ago, there never has been a single chorusmaster for the entire Italian, French, German, English repertoire and with my appointment, the gradual reorganization and training will again be centralized in one hand."

• 1927–1929 Assistant conductor, Berlin State Opera • 1929–1932 Conductor, Prague German Opera Theater • 1932–1933 Conductor, Berlin Municipal Opera House • 1933–1938 Conducting symphony concerts and opera all over Europe • 1933 Conductor of orchestral concerts, Vienna Grosser Musikvereinssaal • 1933 Founder of the Unio Opera Company, Vienna • 1933–1935 First Conductor, Academic Opera and Ballet Theater of the USSR, Kyiv • 1935–1937 Founder, Musical Director, and first conductor of the Symphonic Orchestra Stalingrad (Soviet Union) • 1938–1943 U.S.A. Conducting concerts and concertizing as pianist all over U.S. and Canada • 1938–1939 Pianist, three transcontinental tours of the United States • 1939–1941 Musical Director, Friendship House, New York City • 1943 Assistant Conductor to Leopold Stokowski, Metropolitan Opera, New York City • 1943–1973 Chorus Master, Conductor, Metropolitan Opera, New York City, New York (USA) • 1944–1947 Musical Director, Opera Nacional and Opera de Mexico, Mexico City • 1952 Musical Director, Central City Opera Festival, Central City, Colorado • 1954 Musical Director of opera performances at Greek Theatre, Hollywood, California • Conductor of numerous broadcasts and television performances of operatic and symphonic music

In 1937, Adler partnered with Nina Boldin (1912-2004)in Stalingrad, USSR, which produced a daughter, Ingrid. On March 10, 1948, Adler married Irene Hawthorne (1917–1986) (birth name Irene McNutt), former prima ballerina soloist of the Metropolitan Opera. On September 16, 1965, Adler married Christiane Tocco, which produced a daughter, Eveline (Eva). On September 21, 1977, Adler died at home in his sleep, in Butler, New Jersey, of uremia/chronic glomerulonephritis. His instruments were the piano, organ, harmonica, harpsichord, and celesta. Adler is a polyglot, able to speak a multitude of languages.

• 1997 Rudolf M. Wlaschek: Biographia Judaica Bohemiae, 2 vol., Dortmund: Forschungsstelle Ostmitteleuropa, 1997, 75 S., • 1995 Walter Pass, Gerhard Scheit, Wilhelm Svoboda: Orpheus im Exil – Die Vertreibung der österreichischen Musik von 1938 bis 1945, Wien: Verlag fur Gesellschaftskritik, 1995, 409 p., • 1989 Alain Pâris: Dictionnaire des interprètes et de l'interprétation musicale au XXe siècle, Paris: Éditions Robert Laffont, 1989. 906 p., • 1982 John L. Holmes: Conductors on record, London: Victor Gollancz, 1982, 734 p., • 1979 Index to music necrology: supplement to the 1977 necrology, Notes (Music Library Association), 1979, • 1978 "Kurt Adler – obituary", in: Opera News, Feb 4, 1978, p. 30 • 1976 Paul Frank, Burchard Bulling, Florian Noetzel, Helmut Rosner: Kurzgefasstes Tonkünstler Lexikon – Zweiter Teil: Ergänzungen und Erweiterungen seit 1937, 15. Aufl., Wilhelmshaven: Heinrichshofen, volume 1: A-K. 1974.; Bvolume 2: L-Z. 1976.