Friedrich Polnauer(Frederick F. Polnauer)
Friedrich Polnauer(Frederick F. Polnauer)
Ich füge 3 Kritiken von der letzten Tournee in Bayern bei. Es waren die einzigen, die ich bekommen konnte.
[I am including three reviews of the last tour in Bavaria. They were the only ones I could obtain. (ed. trans.)]
Friedrich Polnauer in a letter to the Kulturbund’s artistic director Kurt Singer, in which he asked the latter for a letter of recommendation for Polnauer’s job search while in exile. Berlin, 14 December 1938
| Born | on 4 July 1905 in Vienna |
|---|---|
| Died | on 22 November 1974 in New York, USA |
| Exile | United States of America |
| Profession | Engineer, Musician |
Friedrich Polnauer was gifted both musically and technically. After losing his job as an engineer in Berlin in 1930 as a result of the Depression and subsequently setting up as a freelance inventor, he began private violin studies at the Klindworth-Scharwenka Conservatory. He had to discontinue this when the National Socialists took power, however. In October 1933, he joined the symphony orchestra of the Kulturbund Deutscher Juden (Cultural Federation of German Jews) in Berlin as a violinist.
From 1938 onwards, Polnauer increasingly explored opportunities to emigrate and attempted to find employment with an orchestra in various European countries and the USA while still based in Berlin. He left Berlin in December 1938 without any employment prospects and emigrated to the USA. He had already applied for his visa before the November pogroms.
In New York, he initially depended on the support of the Placement Committee for German and Austrian Musicians. In late 1939, he was able to take up a post as concertmaster with the Southern Symphony Orchestra in South Carolina. From 1941, Polnauer resumed working as an engineer while continuing to perform in concerts, especially in the canteens and hospitals for US troops. After the war ended, Polnauer continued his dual-track career. As an engineer, he obtained several US patents; as a musician, he above all developed an intensive teaching and editing career. Much of the sheet music for violin pieces by Baroque composers that Polnauer published is still in print today.
Selected works:
Sheet music published by Frederick F. Polnauer:
Sonata VIII A major for Two Violins and Basso Continuo by Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber. Bad Schwalbach: Edition Gamma [2013]
Three Romances by Anton Reicha. Mainz: Schott 1969
Gallery
