Germaine Schnitzer

Germaine Alice Schnitzer was born in Paris and studied music at the Conservatoire de Paris, with further training under Raoul Pugno and with Emil von Sauer at the Vienna Conservatory."Germaine Schnitzer, Pianist in Early 1900s" New York Times (September 22, 1982): D25. She was sometimes referred to as "Viennese",[https://books.google.com/books?id=pS5MAQAAMAAJ&dq=Germaine+Schnitzer&pg=PR184 "Germaine Schnitzer's Second Tour"] Musical Courier (1908): 28. and while in Vienna won a prize for music from the Austrian government.[https://books.google.com/books?id=pS5MAQAAMAAJ&dq=Germaine+Schnitzer&pg=RA6-PR42 "A Parley with a Pianist"] Musical Courier (October 14, 1908): 38.

Schnitzer was a pianist with a busy concert career in North America and Europe.[https://books.google.com/books?id=kHtFAQAAMAAJ&dq=Germaine+Schnitzer&pg=RA18-PA25 "Germaine Schnitzer Demanded All Over United States"] Music News (June 2, 1916): 25.Abbie Stephens Fridenberg, [https://books.google.com/books?id=kHtFAQAAMAAJ&dq=Germaine+Schnitzer&pg=RA21-PA18 "Mme. Schnitzer Does Not Accept"] Music News (June 23, 1916): 18. She played in New York with the Russian Symphony Orchestra and the Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra,[https://books.google.com/books?id=pS5MAQAAMAAJ&dq=Germaine+Schnitzer&pg=RA1-PR110 "Soloists with the Dresden Philharmonic"] Musical Courier (October 7, 1908): 18. toured Holland,[https://books.google.com/books?id=pS5MAQAAMAAJ&dq=Germaine+Schnitzer&pg=RA5-PR47 "Schnitzer's Holland Tour"] Musical Courier (October 14, 1908): 29. and toured in Russia until she sprained her ankle,[https://books.google.com/books?id=pS5MAQAAMAAJ&dq=Germaine+Schnitzer&pg=RA6-PA17 "Germaine Schnitzer Now in Germany"] Musical Courier (December 16, 1908): 17. all during 1908 and 1909. She played a dual recital with American violinist Francis MacMillen at Carnegie Hall in 1916.Abbie Stephens Fridenberg, [https://books.google.com/books?id=kHtFAQAAMAAJ&dq=Germaine+Schnitzer&pg=RA6-PA28 "Mme. Schnitzer in Dual Recital with Mac Millen"] Music News (February 18, 1916): 28. She gave a series of recitals in New York in 1920,[https://books.google.com/books?id=y-w6AQAAMAAJ&dq=Germaine+Schnitzer&pg=RA12-PA41 "Germaine Schnitzer, Pianist"] Musical Courier (March 25, 1920): 41. before embarking on a European tour. The tour was cut short when she returned to New York to be with her husband during a hospitalization.[https://books.google.com/books?id=y-w6AQAAMAAJ&dq=Germaine+Schnitzer&pg=RA17-PA28 "Germaine Schnitzer Abandons European Tour"] Musical Courier (April 22, 1920): 28. She toured in Europe again in 1922.[https://books.google.com/books?id=N-U6AQAAMAAJ&dq=Germaine+Schnitzer&pg=RA25-PA7 "Mme. Schnitzer Plays"] Musical Courier (December 28, 1922): 7.[https://books.google.com/books?id=N-U6AQAAMAAJ&dq=Germaine+Schnitzer&pg=RA5-PA47 "Germaine Schnitzer to Play in Stockholm"] Musical Courier (August 10, 1922): 17.

She received wide critical praise for her technique and interpretation of the romantic composers, especially Robert Schumann.[https://books.google.com/books?id=y-w6AQAAMAAJ&dq=Germaine+Schnitzer&pg=RA10-PA53 "Germaine Schnitzer 'a Wonder of Technic'"] Musical Courier (March 11, 1920): 53.Abbie Stephens Fridenberg, [https://books.google.com/books?id=kHtFAQAAMAAJ&dq=Germaine+Schnitzer&pg=RA3-PA28 "Germaine Schnitzer Functionates as Interpreter of the Romantics"] Music News (January 28, 1916): 28. Another reviewer was less enthusiastic, calling her "solid and substantial" performance "massive even ponderous and lacking an emotional basis".H. F. P., [https://books.google.com/books?id=gNtFAQAAMAAJ&dq=Germaine+Schnitzer&pg=RA3-PA28 "Schnitzer Warmly Greeted at Return"] Musical America (November 22, 1919): 28. She affirmed that technique was her emphasis: "I do not believe that a public performer is best served by giving himself up entirely to the emotional phase of his expression, since he is almost surely to fall into rhythmic and other excess which may mar the more worthy element of clarity," she told an interviewer in 1920. She was interviewed for a chapter in Harriette Moore Brower's Piano Mastery (1915).Harriette Moore Brower, [https://books.google.com/books?id=FIU5AQAAMAAJ&dq=Germaine+Schnitzer&pg=PA215 Piano Mastery: Talks with Master Pianists and Teachers] (Frederick A. Stokes Company 1915): 215. Schnitzer recorded several piano rolls for Ampico.Great Female Pianists Vol 6: Masters of the Piano Roll series audio CD (Dal Segno 2007).

In 1931, Schnitzer's career ended when she was badly injured in a traffic accident in New York, and remained partially paralyzed. She won a judgment of $150,000 after suing the taxi company in 1934, though it is unlikely she was ever paid."Injury Suit Won by Mme. Schnitzer" New York Times (June 6, 1934): 22. In 1944 she admitted her part[https://www.newspapers.com/clip/29276938/germaine_schnitzer_1944/ "Woman Admits Plot on Assets"] Daily News (October 25, 1944): 152. via Newspapers.com in a conspiracy to violate the Export Control Act,"Ex-Pianist Testifies in Frozen Fund Case" New York Times (February 7, 1945): 17. to help her brother Georges Schnitzer, a banker in Belgium, access his frozen accounts during World War II."Pianist Admits Plot to 'Unfreeze' Funds" New York Times (October 25, 1944): 23. She pleaded guilty, testified for the government, and was eventually fined $5000."Pianist Indicted in Money Shifting" New York Times (September 27, 1944): 8. [https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F2/151/661/1488836/ United States v. Moran], 151 F.2d 661 (2d Cir. 1945), at Justia. Her donation to the New York Times Neediest Cases Fund in 1979 was noted by the paper, because of her advanced age.Joan Cook, "Woman, 92, Donates to Neediest; Another Hails Work by the Fund" New York Times (December 27, 1979): B13.

Germaine Schnitzer married Leo Buerger, a pathologist, in 1913. She sued him for divorce in 1927.Joseph Cowan, [https://www.newspapers.com/clip/29278768/leo_buerger_germaine_schnitzer_1927/ "Mrs. Buerger Cites Other Loves of Noted Surgeon"] Daily News (December 20, 1927): 337. via Newspapers.comJoseph Cowan, [https://www.newspapers.com/clip/29279013/germaine_schnitzer_1928/ "Blonde Proves Unlucky; Surgeon's Wife Names Her in Divorce Trial"] Daily News (April 14, 1928): 62. via Newspapers.com She had a son, Gerald Henri Buerger (later known as Gerry Kean, an actor, playwright, and director),Nona Footz, [https://issuu.com/venumagazine/docs/jan-feb_pages__stacked_ "The Woman with the Red Leather Gloves"] Venu (January–February 2013): 56–57.[https://www.newspapers.com/clip/29276867/germaine_schnitzer_1938/ "Home... to Hollywood"] Daily News (August 9, 1938): 174. via Newspapers.com and a daughter, Yvonne Sarah Buerger Jones (1920–1942). Yvonne's godmother was Schnitzer's friend, actress Sarah Bernhardt. Yvonne's husband at the time of her death was actor Henry Burk Jones. Germaine Schnitzer died in 1982, aged 94 years, in New York. Her gravesite is with her daughter's, in Ridgefield, Connecticut. Theatre administrator Robert C. Schnitzer (1906–2008), also based in Connecticut, was her nephew, the son of her brother Louis Schnitzer.[http://archives.nypl.org/the/21617 Robert C. Schnitzer and Marcella Cisney Papers], Billy Rose Theatre Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.[https://westportnow.com/index.php?/v3/obitjump/robert_c_schnitzer_101/ "Robert C. Schnitzer, 101"] Westport Now (January 14, 2008).

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Category:1888 births

Category:1982 deaths

Category:20th-century French women classical pianists

Category:20th-century French classical pianists

Category:French emigrants to the United States