Background
Kurt was born on February 17, 1882 in Berlin, Germany, the son of Joseph and Marie (Hirschfeld) Schindler.
(Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We h...)
Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy.
https://www.amazon.com/Century-Russian-Song-Glinka-Rachmaninoff/dp/131386353X?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=131386353X
Kurt was born on February 17, 1882 in Berlin, Germany, the son of Joseph and Marie (Hirschfeld) Schindler.
Kurt was educated academically in the universities at Berlin and Munich and received his musical instruction from Konrad Ansorge, Ludwig Bussler, Friedrich Gernsheim, Johannes Wolf, and Ludwig Thuille.
When Schindler was twenty years old, in the season of 1902-03, he conducted the orchestra at the Stuttgart Opera House, and the following season he became conductor at the Municipal Theatre in Wurzburg.
In 1905 he removed to New York at the suggestion of Heinrich Conried, manager of the Metropolitan Opera House, who engaged him as an assistant conductor. Schindler remained at the Metropolitan in this capacity for three seasons, until the spring of 1908.
In 1909 he organized the MacDowell Chorus, which began giving concerts in New York the following year. In 1912 the name of the organization was changed to the Schola Cantorum, and its membership was enlarged to two hundred men and women. Schindler conducted the Schola Cantorum until 1926. The programs of the Schola were always novel and striking. In addition to previously unknown works of Rimsky-Korsakoff, Debussy, Borodin, Bloch, Chabrier, Moussorgsky, Sibelius, and others, he presented folk-music of different countries. In January 1926 he announced that the current season would be his last as conductor of the Schola Cantorum.
He had accepted an offer from S. L. Rothafel to take charge of a chorus at the Roxy Theatre, which was then being built at the corner of Fiftieth Street and Seventh Avenue, New York. Schindler explained that this post would give him "an opportunity to reach thousands of people for every one" he was able to reach through his present position. He remained at the Roxy Theatre, however, for only one season, and it was evident that the association was not a happy one.
For a single season, 1926-27, he established and conducted a Musical Forum, which gave a series of concerts of varied types. Meanwhile he had been undertaking other activities. In 1907 he became manuscript reader for the music-publishing firm of G. Schirmer, in New York, and he continued his editorial and advisory duties with that concern for the rest of his life. In 1912 he succeeded Max Spicker as choir-master of New York's Temple Emanu-El.
He traveled extensively collecting songs from native folk-singers in many nations. Under the auspices of the Spanish department of Columbia University, and in collaboration with the Centro de Estudios Historicos of Madrid, Schindler took with him on his Spanish expeditions a recording apparatus and procured phonograph records of hundreds of folk-songs in the provinces of Soria, Estremadura, Santander, and Asturias, as well as in Portugal. At the request of Archer Huntington and the Hispanic Institute in the United States, Schindler made a collection of Spanish music of church, theatre, and opera, with correlated literature.
His published works include numerous original songs and choruses, and he was editor of the following volumes: A Century of Russian Song (1911); Masters of Russian Song (1917); A Cappella Choruses from the Russian Liturgy (1913 - 17) and others.
Shortly before his death, which occurred in New York in 1935, he taught for a few months at Bennington College.
(Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We h...)
Schindler was married, on November 14, 1916, to Vera Androuchevitch, a Russian actress, whom he had met while collecting folksongs. She lived for only a few years after their marriage, and her death was a blow from which he never fully recovered.