Modest Altschuler

Modest (Moisei Isaacovich) Altschuler (February 15, 1873 – September 12, 1963) was a cellist, orchestral conductor, and composer.

He was born in Mogilev, Belarus. He studied at the Moscow Conservatory and emigrated to the United States in the late 1890s.

Early in the twentieth century, Altschuler organized the Russian Symphony Orchestra Society of New York, 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 about 1910. Nathaniel Shilkret, a member of the Orchestra, notes in his autobiography^[1] 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]."

Despite his rigorous classical training, Altschuler was not averse to modernist experimentation. The Symphony's March 1915 New York premiere of Skryabin's Promethee: Le Poeme de Feu with Marguerite Volavy as pianist, featured a newly invented device, the chromola, which rendered musical tones in color [1].

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 brother, 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 [2].

Altschuler founded a musical dynasty which includes his niece Eleanor Aller, symphony conductor Leonard Slatkin, cellist Frederick Zlotkin [3], violinist Judith Aller, singer/songwriter Jody Cormack and composer Dylan Mattingly. Aller and her husband Felix Slatkin were principals in the Hollywood String Quartet [4] [5], one of America's most accomplished classical ensembles in the period 1947-1961.

Modest Altschuler died in Los Angeles on September 12, 1963.

References

1. ^ 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 0810851288

Persondata
Name	Altschuler, Modest
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Date of birth	1873
Place of birth
Date of death	1963
Place of death