Hermann Busch was an American cellist. He is most remembered as a founder of the Marlboro School of Music in Marlboro, Vermont, and its summer music festivals.
Background
Hermann Busch was born on June 24, 1897 in Siegen, Westphalia, Germany, to Wilhelm Busch and Henriette Schmidt, the fifth child in a family of musical children that included eminent conductor Fritz Busch and celebrated violinist Adolf Busch. Busch's father, a violin maker and owner of a musical instrument shop, had hoped to be a concert musician himself, but was forced by circumstances to settle for the founding and conducting of a small orchestra that played in taverns and at various social events. Busch's mother operated her own embroidery business in addition to playing the piano in her husband's orchestra on weekends and raising five children.
Education
Busch's father encouraged his children to study music and learn to play at least one instrument. Fritz and Adolf Busch were already playing with their father's "Salonkapelle" orchestra in the villages of the Siegerland when their brother Hermann was born in 1897. When Hermann was six years old he took up the violin, much to the chagrin of his brothers, who felt that the family orchestra needed a cellist, not another violinist.
Under pressure to switch instruments, Busch began to study the cello, taking his first lessons from his father at the age of nine. When his father decided that he needed a professional music teacher, the family moved from Siegen to Siegburg, a little city in the Rhineland not far from Cologne.
In Siegburg, the family would be closer to brother Adolf, who was then studying at the Cologne Conservatory. It was hoped that Hermann would also study there. In Cologne, Busch attended the Conservatory and studied the cello under the guidance of Friedrich Grützmacher. He also intermittently studied with Jacques Rendsburg in Bonn during this time.
In 1913, he transferred to the Vienna Academy of Music, where he studied with Paul Grümmer, whom he replaced years later as the principal cellist in the Busch Quartet.
Career
In 1914, Busch volunteered for the army, but World War I did not prevent him from being involved in music. It was during the war that Busch became a member of the Brussels Symphony Orchestra. After the war, he was engaged as a solo cellist for the city of Bochum's orchestra.
From 1923 to 1927 Busch was a member of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, where he was first cellist. In the years following, he performed as a soloist in a number of major cities in Europe, including Vienna, Rome, Milan, and London. He was also a member of the faculty of the Folkswangschule in Essen from 1927 to 1930.
In 1926, he began to play regularly with his brother Adolf and pianist Rudolf Serkin in the Busch Trio. The Busch Trio, which toured extensively in Europe prior to World War II, gained a great deal of recognition and acclaim for their concert performances. Occasionally, his brother Fritz directed these concerts.
In 1930, Busch became a member of the Busch Quartet, founded by his brother Adolf in 1919. The Busch Quartet achieved international fame as a string ensemble, touring widely in Europe and eventually in North America.
Busch remained a member of both the Busch Trio and the Busch Quartet until his brother Adolf's death in 1952.
When Hitler assumed power in 1933, the Busch Quartet immediately canceled all of their concerts in Germany.
From Basel, the Busch Quartet undertook many concert trips to England, France, and Italy, as well as other European countries. With the outbreak of World War II these concert trips became impossible.
In 1940, Busch emigrated to New York City, following by one year the emigration to America of his brother Adolf and Rudolf Serkin. When the war came to an end, the Busch Quartet again embarked on a series of concert tours in Europe.
In 1950, Busch and his brother Adolf, along with Rudolf Serkin and others, founded the Marlboro School of Music in Marlboro, Vermont. The three musicians directed the school and performed in the school's summer music festivals.
In 1951, the Busch Quartet played in Germany again for the first time. While in America, Busch continued to appear as a soloist and play with several orchestras and string ensembles--especially in New York City, where he made his home.
In 1954, Busch was appointed professor of music at the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida. Busch continued to teach the cello there until his retirement in 1964.
Hermann Busch gave his last public concert in Dahlbruch, Germany, on June 5, 1966, a matinee performance, which took place on the occasion of the seventy-fifth birthday of Adolf Busch. He played his brother's piano trio in A-minor, Opus 15, with Pina Carmirelli and Rudolf Serkin.
He died in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, and was survived by his wife, his daughter, and four grandchildren.
Achievements
Hermann Busch's main achievement was in founding of the Marlboro School of Music in Marlboro, Vermont, and its summer music festivals. With the establishment of the Marlboro School, Busch hoped to enhance the opportunities for the study and performance of chamber music in America.
Busch was greatly admired as a soloist and as a member of the Busch Trio and the Busch Quartet, both of which have had a lasting impact on chamber music in Europe and the United States. In addition to his reputation as an artist and performing musician, Busch is also remembered as a devoted teacher of the cello in the Marlboro School of Music.
Busch's four years in Bochum had a great impact on the rest of his life as it was there that on May 18, 1924, he married Charlotte Ising, the daughter of a Bochum businessman. They had one child, a daughter.
Busch, though not Jewish, renounced his German citizenship and moved his family to Basel, Switzerland, where his brother Adolf and Rudolf Serkin had already established themselves in 1927.
Father:
Wilhelm Busch
Mother:
Henriette Schmidt
Brother:
Adolf Busch
associates:
Gusta Andresson
violist
Wife:
Charlotte Ising
Brother:
Fritz Busch
associate:
Karl Doktor
viola
The quartet was composed of Hermann Busch, cello; Adolf Busch and Gusta Andresson, violins; and Karl Doktor, viola.
