Background
Haas, Karl was born on December 6, 1913 in Speyer-am-Rhine, Germany.
conductor music educator musicologist pianist
Haas, Karl was born on December 6, 1913 in Speyer-am-Rhine, Germany.
In 1996, he received an honorary degree in Doctor of Letters from Oglethorpe University. He studied at the Mannheim Conservatory and earned a doctorate in music literature from Heidelberg University. He studied piano with Artur Schnabel.
He was the host of the classical music radio program, which was syndicated to commercial and public radio stations around the world. He also published the book He first settled in Detroit, Michigan, then lived in other places, returning to Detroit near the end of his life. Trudie died in 1977. Haas began his radio program,, on WJR in Detroit, Michigan in 1959.
Syndicated broadcasts of the show across the United States began in 1970 on WCLV, a Cleveland, Ohio radio station.
The show eventually was syndicated to commercial and public radio stations around the world and became the world"s most widely listened-to classical music radio program The theme music for was the second movement from Beethoven"s "Pathétique" Sonata (Sonata Number 8 in C minor), performed by Haas.
Haas started every show with his trademark greeting "Hello everyone", and later entitled a track of his Civil Defense with those words. Foreign several years the program had the most listeners of any classical music radio show in the world.
President George H. West. Bush presented the award to Haas at the White House.
In 1997 he became the first classical music broadcaster to be named to the National Radio Hall of Fame. Haas did not produce any new episodes of the show 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 program on June 29, 2007.
The announcement explained that the number of stations that carried the show had dropped from more than 400 to fewer than 20, which made it unfeasible to continue the program"s national distribution. Most episodes of are not available publicly because of copyright restrictions, although three CDs have been issued featuring Haas and his commentary: The Romantic Piano, The Story of the Bells, and Song and Dance.
Haas was Jewish, and he left Germany in 1936 with the rise of Nazism.
Married Trudie Haas (deceased ). Children: Alyce, Jeffrey, Andrew.
