Karl Haas

Karl Haas (December 6, 1913 – February 6, 2005) was a German-American classical music radio show host whose distinctively sonorous voice and humanistic approach to making his joy of music contagious made him well-received by many. He was the host of "Adventures in Good Music", which was syndicated to commercial and public radio stations around the world. He also published a book, "Inside Music". Aside from being a musicologist, Haas was also an accomplished pianist and conductor.

Biography

Haas was born in Speyer, Palatinate, and studied at the Mannheim Conservatory and the University of Heidelberg. Haas, who was Jewish, left Germany in 1936 with the rise of Nazism. He first settled in Detroit, Michigan, but lived in other places before returning to Detroit near the end of his life. He studied piano with the legendary Artur Schnabel.

Haas started "Adventures in Good Music" at WJR in Detroit, Michigan in 1959. Syndicated broadcasts of the show across the United States began in 1970 at WCLV, a Cleveland, Ohio radio station. The story goes that the station people wanted him to call it something like “Adventures in Classical Music”, which he rejected as being too narrow, or “Adventures in Music”, which he rejected as being too broad. He chose the title as being in line with his philosophy that there are really only two kinds of music: good and bad. His knowledge of every facet of music was encyclopedic. The theme music for his show was the 2nd movement from Beethoven's “Pathétique” Sonata (Sonata No 8 in C minor), performed by Haas himself. Haas started every show with his trademark greeting "Hello everyone", and even titled a track of his CD as such.

Haas received the Charles Frankel Award of the National Endowment for the Humanities in 1991. President George H. W. Bush personally presented the award to Haas at the White House. Haas also twice won the George Foster Peabody Award for excellence in broadcasting. In 1997 he became the first, and so far the only, classical music broadcaster to be named to the Radio Hall of Fame.

Haas did not produce any new shows in the last two years of his life. WCLV continued to syndicate recordings of his previous shows until June 2007. That month, WCLV announced "with great regret" that it would broadcast and syndicate its last "Adventures in Good Music with Karl Haas" program on June 29, 2007. The announcement explained that the number of stations that carried the show had dropped from well over 400 to fewer than 20, which made it unfeasible to continue the program's national distribution. The Haas family is searching for ways to make the show available to the public.

External links

* [http://www.mssu.edu/pages/kxms/haas.htm Video in which Karl Haas briefly explains why he devoted his entire life to music]
* [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A6475-2005Feb7.html Obituary in the Washington Post February 8, 2005; Page B06]
* [http://www.radiohof.org/discjockey/karlhaas.html Haas inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame]
* [http://www.wclv.com/page.php?pageID=175 Memorial piece about Karl Haas and his radio style]