Background
Max Heinrich was born on June 14, 1853, in Chemnitz, Saxony, Germany.
Max Heinrich was born on June 14, 1853, in Chemnitz, Saxony, Germany.
Max Heinrich studied music at the Zwickau Gymnasium under Karl Emanuel Klitzsch from 1865 to 1869, and later at the Dresden Conserva tory.
Max Heinrich emigrated to the United States in 1873, at a time when concert life was well developed, especially in the East. He taught music in Philadelphia until 1876, when he accepted a position in the Judson Institute, Marion, Alabama. In 1882 he left the South, went to New York, and began his career as a concert artist with his appearance in the role of Elijah in Mendelssohn’s oratorio, with the New York Choral Society. His success was immediate. He frequently sang at orchestral concerts conducted by Seidl, Thomas, Gericke, Paur, Nikisch, and Walter Damrosch, and for a short time appeared in opera.
Heinrich frequently changed his scene of activity. In 1884 he visited California on a tour with Theodore Thomas’ orchestra, and he lived and sang successively in Chicago, 1894-1903, in Boston, 1903-1910, and in New York, 1910-1916. For only five years, from 1888 to 1893, when he was in London as professor of singing at the Royal Academy of Music, did he live outside of the United States after his first arrival.
Heinrich translated into English the texts of many of the classics in his repertory; composed songs, and arranged musical settings to accompany the recitation of Poe’s “The Raven” and Waller’s “Magdalena, ” anticipating later works of this kind by Max von Schillings, Richard Strauss. He was the author of a technical treatise, Correct Principles of Classical Singing (1910). These creative activities, however, were less important than his activity as an exponent of German Lieder.
Heinrich was twice married. His first wife was Anna Schubert who died in 1900. About 1904 he was married to Anna Held, from whom he later separated.