Background
Ralph Herman Leopold was born in 1884 in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, the son of Howard Leopold.
- Photos
- Works
- Photos
- Works
Ralph Leopold
Edit ProfileCareer
By 1911, he was teaching in Berlin, and played with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. In World War I he was attached to the Army Bandmaster"s School at Governors Island, Here he met and became a close friend of the Australian-born pianist and composer Percy Grainger, who had become an American citizen in June 1918. Leopold and Grainger gave the first performance of the piano duet version of Grainger"s Children"s March: Over the Hills and Far Away.
Leopold was also the solo pianist in the first performance of the version for band and piano, with Grainger conducting the Goldman Band (6 June 1919).
After the war, Leopold played again in America and Europe, where he appeared with several orchestras. On return to the United States he taught in Cleveland, Toledo, Texas, New York and a period at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia.
His students included Richard Franko Goldman, Hugh Hodgson and Max Helfman. On 9 November 1925 in a recital in New York he played Ernő Dohnányi"s Four Rhapsodies, Operation
11, and a review credited him with "rediscovering Dohnányi".
Ralph Leopold died on 10 July 1955, aged 71.
-
Born
-
Died
1955 (aged 71) -
Nationality
United States