Joseph Horowitz
Encyclopedia
Joseph Horowitz is an American cultural historian
whose seven books mainly deal with the institutional history of classical music
in the United States
. As a producer of concerts, he has played a pioneering role in promoting thematic programming and new concert formats. His tenure as Artistic Advisor and, subsequently, Executive Director of the Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra
at the Brooklyn Academy of Music
(1992–1997) attracted national attention for its radical departure from traditional functions and templates.
Horowitz’s books treat the late nineteenth century as the apex of American classical music, before it generated into a “culture of performance“ spotlighting celebrity conductors and instrumentalists, whom he terms “performance specialists” in contradistinction to the composer/performers of an earlier era. He is also credited (as by Alex Ross
in The New Yorker
) with coining the phrase “post-classical music” to describe an emerging 21st century musical landscape merging classical music with popular and non-Western genres.
Horowitz’s treatment late Gilded Age
culture challenges prevalent notions of “social control” and “sacralization” as defined by such cultural historians as Alan Trachtenburg and Lawrence Levine. In Wagner Nights: An American History and Classical Music in America: A History of Its Rise and Fall, he argues that American classical music of the late nineteenth century cannot be viewed as an instrument of affluent elites. In Understanding Toscanini: How He Became an American Culture-God and Helped Create a New Audience for Old Music, he treats the “Toscanini cult” of the mid-twentieth century as a metaphor for the decline of classical music in the United States, arguing that the conductor Arturo Toscanini
became the first non-composer to be widely regarded the “world’s greatest musician,“ and that no prior conductor of comparable eminence and influence had been so divorced from the music of his own time. Wagner Nights also proposes that American Wagnerism of the 1880s and 1890s was (compared to European and Russian Wagner movements) distinctly meliorist and “proto-feminist,“ the vast majority of American Wagnerites having been women.
As a concert producer, Horowitz began as artistic advisor to the Schubertiade at New York’s 92nd Street Y, for which he created all-day Schubert symposia incorporating film, Lieder, and chamber music (1981–1994). During his tenure with the Brooklyn Philharmonic, the orchestra received the 1996 Morton Gould Award for Innovative Programming from the American Symphony Orchestra League, as well as five ASCAP/ASOL awards for Adventuresome Programming; according to Alex Ross
in The New Yorker
(November 1997), “When Joseph Horowitz became Executive Director, the Brooklyn Philharmonic more or less went off the grid of American orchestral culture. The subscription-series template -- overture, concerto, symphony -- has been thrown away. Programs have become miniature weekend festivals.” Beginning in 1999, Horowitz has served as a free-lance artistic consultant; he has conceived more than three dozen thematic inter-disciplinary music festivals for a variety of orchestras and performing arts institutions. In 2002, he co-created Post-Classical Ensemble, a chamber orchestra in Washington, D.C., for which he serves as Artistic Director.
Horowitz was a music critic for the New York Times from 1976 to 1980. Since 1998, he has regularly contributed to the Times Literary Supplement (UK)
; he has also written for a variety of scholarly publications, including the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. He is the author of the articles on “classical music” for both The Oxford Encyclopedia of American History and The Encyclopedia of New York State. He is the recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation
in 2001, the National Endowment for the Humanities
(twice), and the National Arts Journalism Program at Columbia University
, and has served as Project Director of a National Education Project, “Dvorak in America,” for the National Endowment for the Humanities. He serves as Artistic Director of an annual music critics institute for the National Endowment for the Arts
. In 2004, he was awarded a certificate of appreciation by the Czech Parliament “for his exceptional explorations – both as a scholar and as the organizer of Dvorak festivals throughout the United States – of Dvorak’s historic sojourn in America..” He has taught at the City University of New York
, the Eastman School of Music
, the Mannes College of Music
, and New England Conservatory.
Books
Historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...
whose seven books mainly deal with the institutional history of classical music
Classical music
Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...
in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. As a producer of concerts, he has played a pioneering role in promoting thematic programming and new concert formats. His tenure as Artistic Advisor and, subsequently, Executive Director of the Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra
Brooklyn Philharmonic
The Brooklyn Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra, commonly known as the Brooklyn Philharmonic, is an American orchestra based in the borough of Brooklyn, in New York City...
at the Brooklyn Academy of Music
Brooklyn Academy of Music
Brooklyn Academy of Music is a major performing arts venue in Brooklyn, a borough of New York City, United States, known as a center for progressive and avant garde performance....
(1992–1997) attracted national attention for its radical departure from traditional functions and templates.
Horowitz’s books treat the late nineteenth century as the apex of American classical music, before it generated into a “culture of performance“ spotlighting celebrity conductors and instrumentalists, whom he terms “performance specialists” in contradistinction to the composer/performers of an earlier era. He is also credited (as by Alex Ross
Alex Ross
Nelson Alexander "Alex" Ross is an American comic book painter, illustrator, and plotter. He is praised for his realistic, human depictions of classic comic book characters. Since the 1990s he has done work for Marvel Comics and DC Comics Nelson Alexander "Alex" Ross (born January 22, 1970) is an...
in The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
) with coining the phrase “post-classical music” to describe an emerging 21st century musical landscape merging classical music with popular and non-Western genres.
Horowitz’s treatment late Gilded Age
Gilded Age
In United States history, the Gilded Age refers to the era of rapid economic and population growth in the United States during the post–Civil War and post-Reconstruction eras of the late 19th century. The term "Gilded Age" was coined by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner in their book The Gilded...
culture challenges prevalent notions of “social control” and “sacralization” as defined by such cultural historians as Alan Trachtenburg and Lawrence Levine. In Wagner Nights: An American History and Classical Music in America: A History of Its Rise and Fall, he argues that American classical music of the late nineteenth century cannot be viewed as an instrument of affluent elites. In Understanding Toscanini: How He Became an American Culture-God and Helped Create a New Audience for Old Music, he treats the “Toscanini cult” of the mid-twentieth century as a metaphor for the decline of classical music in the United States, arguing that the conductor Arturo Toscanini
Arturo Toscanini
Arturo Toscanini was an Italian conductor. One of the most acclaimed musicians of the late 19th and 20th century, he was renowned for his intensity, his perfectionism, his ear for orchestral detail and sonority, and his photographic memory...
became the first non-composer to be widely regarded the “world’s greatest musician,“ and that no prior conductor of comparable eminence and influence had been so divorced from the music of his own time. Wagner Nights also proposes that American Wagnerism of the 1880s and 1890s was (compared to European and Russian Wagner movements) distinctly meliorist and “proto-feminist,“ the vast majority of American Wagnerites having been women.
As a concert producer, Horowitz began as artistic advisor to the Schubertiade at New York’s 92nd Street Y, for which he created all-day Schubert symposia incorporating film, Lieder, and chamber music (1981–1994). During his tenure with the Brooklyn Philharmonic, the orchestra received the 1996 Morton Gould Award for Innovative Programming from the American Symphony Orchestra League, as well as five ASCAP/ASOL awards for Adventuresome Programming; according to Alex Ross
Alex Ross
Nelson Alexander "Alex" Ross is an American comic book painter, illustrator, and plotter. He is praised for his realistic, human depictions of classic comic book characters. Since the 1990s he has done work for Marvel Comics and DC Comics Nelson Alexander "Alex" Ross (born January 22, 1970) is an...
in The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
(November 1997), “When Joseph Horowitz became Executive Director, the Brooklyn Philharmonic more or less went off the grid of American orchestral culture. The subscription-series template -- overture, concerto, symphony -- has been thrown away. Programs have become miniature weekend festivals.” Beginning in 1999, Horowitz has served as a free-lance artistic consultant; he has conceived more than three dozen thematic inter-disciplinary music festivals for a variety of orchestras and performing arts institutions. In 2002, he co-created Post-Classical Ensemble, a chamber orchestra in Washington, D.C., for which he serves as Artistic Director.
Horowitz was a music critic for the New York Times from 1976 to 1980. Since 1998, he has regularly contributed to the Times Literary Supplement (UK)
The Times Literary Supplement
The Times Literary Supplement is a weekly literary review published in London by News International, a subsidiary of News Corporation.-History:...
; he has also written for a variety of scholarly publications, including the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. He is the author of the articles on “classical music” for both The Oxford Encyclopedia of American History and The Encyclopedia of New York State. He is the recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation
John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation
The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation was founded in 1925 by Mr. and Mrs. Simon Guggenheim in memory of their son, who died April 26, 1922...
in 2001, the National Endowment for the Humanities
National Endowment for the Humanities
The National Endowment for the Humanities is an independent federal agency of the United States established by the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965 dedicated to supporting research, education, preservation, and public programs in the humanities. The NEH is located at...
(twice), and the National Arts Journalism Program at Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
, and has served as Project Director of a National Education Project, “Dvorak in America,” for the National Endowment for the Humanities. He serves as Artistic Director of an annual music critics institute for the National Endowment for the Arts
National Endowment for the Arts
The National Endowment for the Arts is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created by an act of the U.S. Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. Its current...
. In 2004, he was awarded a certificate of appreciation by the Czech Parliament “for his exceptional explorations – both as a scholar and as the organizer of Dvorak festivals throughout the United States – of Dvorak’s historic sojourn in America..” He has taught at the City University of New York
City University of New York
The City University of New York is the public university system of New York City, with its administrative offices in Yorkville in Manhattan. It is the largest urban university in the United States, consisting of 23 institutions: 11 senior colleges, six community colleges, the William E...
, the Eastman School of Music
Eastman School of Music
The Eastman School of Music is a music conservatory located in Rochester, New York. The Eastman School is a professional school within the University of Rochester...
, the Mannes College of Music
Mannes College of Music
Mannes College The New School for Music is The New School university's music conservatory. While the university's main campus is located in Greenwich Village, New York City, Mannes maintains its main academic building on the Upper West Side of Manhattan....
, and New England Conservatory.
Books
- Conversations with Arrau (1982)
- Understanding Toscanini: How He Became an American Culture-God and Helped Create a New Audience for Old Music (1987)
- The Ivory Trade (1990)
- Wagner Nights: An American History (1994)
- The Post-Classical Predicament: Essays on Music and Society (1995)
- Dvořák in America: In Search of the New World (for young readers, 2003)
- Classical Music in America: A History of Its Rise and Fall (2005)
- Artists in Exile: How Refugees from War and Revolution Transformed the American Performing Arts
- Fin-de-Siècle: Six Portraits from America’s Gilded Age (in preparation)