Recital and Lecture featuring works of exiled Jewish composer Richard Stöhr
FREE ADMISSION
Richard Stöhr (1874–1967) was a prolific and highly respected Viennese composer, author and teacher. His output includes seven symphonies, two operas, choral music, lieder, numerous chamber works and solo piano music, as well as half a dozen widely used textbooks. During his 50-year career as a teacher, his students included Herbert von Karajan, Erich Leinsdorf, Rudolf Serkin, Samuel Barber, Leonard Bernstein and Marlene Dietrich.
Stöhr was exiled from Austria by the Nazis in 1938. After moving to the US, he taught courses at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia, the University of Cincinnati, and lastly at St. Michael's College in Burlington, VT.
Stefan Koch and Robert Conway are the first musicians to perform this cello/piano music in the US, and the first to perform it anywhere since 1938. The composer's grandson Dan Stohr is a long-time resident and attorney in Chicago, and Dan's mother Vera Gitlin Stoehr was a member of Reba Place Fellowship in Evanston for over 40 years until her death in 2023.
The musical program consists of four Fantasy Pieces and a Cello Sonata, a total of 60 minutes of music. A PowerPoint program on the composer's life is also part of the presentation.
Stefan Koch is a member of the Lansing and Jackson Symphonies in Michigan and Principal Cellist of the Utah Festival Opera in the summer, as well as a frequent guest performer with the Grand Rapids, Toledo, Kalamazoo Symphonies, among others. Robert Conway is Professor of Piano at Wayne St. University and Orchestral Pianist with the Detroit Symphony.
