Kahn, Erich Itor, 1905-1956

Originally composed as Suite Bretonne for piano 4-hands, 1940-42, in the alien detention camp at Gurs, France. First performance of this orchestral version Baden-Baden, Germany, 1949 or 1950, Südwestfunk Orchester, Hans Rosbaud conductor.--Cf. Fleisher Collection.

From the description of Suite bretonne / Erich Itor Kahn. [19--] (Franklin & Marshall College). WorldCat record id: 52472602

Erich Itor Kahn was a German-American pianist and composer.

From the description of Papers, ca. 1925-1956. (New York Public Library). WorldCat record id: 122314110

Erich Itor Kahn was born on July 23, 1905 in Rimbach, Germany of Russian-Jewish descent. He started to play the piano at the age of six and wrote his first composition, a suite for two violins and piano, at the age of nine. Erich Kahn began his musical studies with his father, continued at the conservatory in Frankfürt-on-Main, where he later became one of the directors of the State radio station (1928-1933). In addition to this he played extensively as soloist and ensemble player. In 1933 Erich Kahn took residence in Paris, where he was active in chamber music and was one of the founders of the Schubert Society. He appeared in concerts jointly with many of the famous names in the music field: Doda Conrad, Raia Garbusova, Roland Hayes, Jennie Tourel and others. In 1937 he met Pablo Casals and toured with him through France, England, Italy and North Africa until 1939. In 1941 Erich Kahn moved to the United States where he pursued his concert career as a soloist and since 1944 also with the Albeneri Trio (Alexander Schneider, Benar Heifetz, and Erich Itor Kahn). In 1948 he was awarded the Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Medal Library of Congress for "Eminent Service to Chamber Music". Erich Kahn was a German expressionist, one of Schoenberg's students. His work has become lost. The main reason for that lies in the fact that he belongs to what came to be known as the "Forgotten Generation" of German Jewish Expressionism-influenced artists born at the beginnings of the 20th century, whose careers were nipped in the bud by the ascension of Nazism. Erich Kahn composed numerous works for instrumental solo and ensembles, vocal and orchestra music. Most of these works had several performances during his lifetime. Erich Itor Kahn died on March 5, 1956 in New York. Frida Kahn was born on May 30, 1905 in Russia. She died on March 2, 2002 in New York. She was a music teacher and translator

From the guide to the Erich Itor Kahn papers, 1895-2000, (The New York Public Library. Music Division.)

German-American composer and pianist, Erich Itor Kahn (1905-1956), fled Nazi Germany in 1933 and eventually immigrated to the United States, where he continued to work until the time of his death.

His wife, Frida Kahn (1905-2002), who worked as a piano teacher and translator, did much to promote and maintain her husband's legacy after his death. Born in Rimbach, Germany to a Russian-Jewish father (original family name, Rogowksy) and a mother of Portuguese descent, Erich Itor Kahn started to play the piano at the age of six and wrote his first composition, a suite for two violins and piano, at the age of nine. He began his musical studies with his father, Leopold, who was a high school math teacher and cantor, and continued his training at the Hochs Conservatory in Frankfurt am Main. After graduating in 1928, Kahn joined Radio Frankfurt (Südwest-Deutscher Rundfunk) as an assistant director and pianist. Through this position, Kahn would gain contact with many of the leading composers of the day, including Arnold Schoenberg (whose compositional technique was to influence Kahn greatly), Igor Stravinsky, and Anton Webern. In 1933, following the Nazi rise to power, Kahn left Germany and took up residence in Paris, where he was active in chamber music circles and became one of the founders of the Schubert Society. In 1937, he met Pablo Casals and toured with him as an accompanist throughout Europe and North Africa until 1939. Kahn was interned at the beginning of the war, but released by the authorities because of his reputation as a performer. In 1940, however, after the German occupation began, Kahn and his wife would be sent to a series of concentration camps in France, until they finally obtained permission to emigrate. In 1941, with the assistance of friends, who already were based in the United States, including the émigré violinist Samuel Dushkin, and his American-born wife, Louise Rorimer-Dushkin, the Kahns finally were able to move to the United States, where they settled in New York City. Once relocated, Kahn became a United States citizen and actively pursued his concert career. In 1944, he formed the Albeneri Trio with Alexander Schneider and Benar Heifetz. In 1948, he was awarded the Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge medal by the Library of Congress for his contributions to the field of chamber music. Kahn composed numerous works for instrumental solo and ensembles, vocal and orchestral music. Among his most noted works, include Die Nacht, a choreographic poem based on the work of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, which had been commissioned in 1927 by Rudolf von Laban, Actus tragicus, Chansons populaires, Ciaccona dei tempi di guerra, and Symphonies bretonnes. Although many of his pieces were performed or published during his lifetime, Kahn was more well-known as a pianist. Supported by the efforts of his widow, interest in Kahn's work as a composer began to increase steadily following his untimely death in 1956.

Born Frida Rabinowitsch, Erich Itor Kahn's wife grew up as the daughter of a tobacco factory owner in Kremenchug, Ukraine.

Having survived earlier pogroms, the family was forced to leave Russia after the revolution, arriving in Constantinople, Turkey during the spring of 1920. The Rabinowitsch family stayed briefly in Lausanne, Switzerland, but soon moved to Germany, where they had some connections. At first, Frida lived with her parents within the Jewish refugee community of Bad Homburg, but she soon began commuting to Frankfurt to take piano lessons, eventually moving there to continue her studies. In 1924, she met Erich Itor Kahn in Frankfurt and the two were married in 1928. Frida, however, soon became a refugee once again, leaving for Paris with her husband in the fall of 1933 after the Nazi party began to consolidate its power in Germany. Although the couple's initial years in Paris were filled with activity, after the outbreak of war and the occupation of France, both of the Kahns faced difficult times in French concentration camps, before escaping to the United States via Morocco, after the intervention of influential friends. Frida Kahn would chronicle these experiences in an autobiography, Generation in Turmoil (1960), that was published by Channel Press. Active as a piano treacher in New York City, Frida Kahn also translated the works of Russian authors into English, including stories and plays by Anton Chekhov and poems by Aleksandr Sergeevich Pushkin, under own name. She also wrote quasi-autobiographical, unpublished fiction under a pseudonym, Raissa Mirsky. In addition to time spent on her own writing, Frida Kahn devoted considerable energy in the years following her husband's death to keeping his memory and music alive, up until the time of her own death in 2002.

From the description of Erich Itor Kahn papers, 1895-2000. (New York Public Library). WorldCat record id: 84833679