Theodore Presser Company
Encyclopedia
The Theodore Presser Company is an American music publishing and distribution
company located in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania
and formerly based in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania
. It is the oldest continuing music publisher in the United States.
Theodore Presser was born July 3, 1848 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
. As a young man he worked in an iron foundry helping to mold cannon balls for the army during the Civil War
, then later at the Strokosch Opera Company in Pittsburgh. He eventually achieved the position of sheet music department manager at C.C. Mellor's music store in Pittsburgh, where he had begun working as a clerk.
Presser studied music at Mt. Union College, Ohio Northern University
, Miami Conservatory of Music
, the New England Conservatory, and the Leipzig Conservatory in Germany under Reinecke
, Jadassoh, and Zwintscher. In addition, he is credited as the founder of the Department of Music at Ohio Wesleyan University
. In October 1883, while serving as Director of Music at Hollins College in Roanoke, Virginia
, Presser began publication of The Etude music magazine with only $250 in cash. The immediate success of his new magazine prompted him to seek larger publishing facilities in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
in 1884. His need for music content within The Etude resulted in his establishment as a dealer and publisher.
section of Philadelphia. His philanthropic
zeal is continued to this day through his foresight in forming the The Presser Foundation in 1916, nine years before his death. Each year, the Presser Foundation awards scholarships, grants and funds specifically to further the cause of music and music education in America.
Following the purchase of the John Church Company
in 1930, the Theodore Presser Company acquired the Oliver Ditson
Company in 1931. Through this acquisition, Presser traces its origins to 1783, when Batelle's Book Store (later the Oliver Ditson Company), began a music publishing business in Boston, Massachusetts.
In 1972, the Theodore Presser Company acquired Elkan-Vogel and its locally represented agencies (including Hamelle et cie., Henry Lemoine et cie. and others), making the Theodore Presser Company a major distributor of French music
in the United States.
On August 31, 2004, Presser closed its retail music stores in both King of Prussia and Center City Philadelphia. The company now focuses primarily on publishing and distribution activities from its headquarters in King of Prussia.
In addition to its own catalog, Presser represents the music of more than 70 U.S. and foreign publishers including Universal Edition
, Peermusic Classical, Éditions Alphonse Leduc
, and Bärenreiter-Verlag.
Distribution (business)
Product distribution is one of the four elements of the marketing mix. An organization or set of organizations involved in the process of making a product or service available for use or consumption by a consumer or business user.The other three parts of the marketing mix are product, pricing,...
company located in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania
King of Prussia, Pennsylvania
King of Prussia is a census-designated place in Upper Merion Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, United States. As of the 2010 census, its population was 19,936. The community took its name in the 18th century from a local tavern named the King of Prussia Inn, which was named after...
and formerly based in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania
Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania
Bryn Mawr from Welsh for "big hill") is a census-designated place in Lower Merion Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, just west of Philadelphia along Lancaster Avenue and the border with Delaware County...
. It is the oldest continuing music publisher in the United States.
Theodore Presser
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh is the second-largest city in the US Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Allegheny County. Regionally, it anchors the largest urban area of Appalachia and the Ohio River Valley, and nationally, it is the 22nd-largest urban area in the United States...
. As a young man he worked in an iron foundry helping to mold cannon balls for the army during the Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
, then later at the Strokosch Opera Company in Pittsburgh. He eventually achieved the position of sheet music department manager at C.C. Mellor's music store in Pittsburgh, where he had begun working as a clerk.
Presser studied music at Mt. Union College, Ohio Northern University
Ohio Northern University
Ohio Northern University is a private, United Methodist Church-affiliated university located in the United States in Ada, Ohio, founded by Henry Solomon Lehr in 1871. ONU is accredited by The Higher Learning Commission and the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools. ONU is a sister...
, Miami Conservatory of Music
Miami University
Miami University is a coeducational public research university located in Oxford, Ohio, United States. Founded in 1809, it is the 10th oldest public university in the United States and the second oldest university in Ohio, founded four years after Ohio University. In its 2012 edition, U.S...
, the New England Conservatory, and the Leipzig Conservatory in Germany under Reinecke
Carl Reinecke
Carl Heinrich Carsten Reinecke was a German composer, conductor, and pianist.-Biography:Reinecke was born in Altona, Hamburg, Germany; until 1864 the town was under Danish rule. He studied with his father, Johann Peter Rudolph Reinecke, a music teacher...
, Jadassoh, and Zwintscher. In addition, he is credited as the founder of the Department of Music at Ohio Wesleyan University
Ohio Wesleyan University
Ohio Wesleyan University is a private liberal arts college in Delaware, Ohio, United States. It was founded in 1842 by Methodist leaders and Central Ohio residents as a nonsectarian institution, and is a member of the Ohio Five — a consortium of Ohio liberal arts colleges...
. In October 1883, while serving as Director of Music at Hollins College in Roanoke, Virginia
Roanoke, Virginia
Roanoke is an independent city in the Mid-Atlantic U.S. state of Virginia and is the tenth-largest city in the Commonwealth. It is located in the Roanoke Valley of the Roanoke Region of Virginia. The population within the city limits was 97,032 as of 2010...
, Presser began publication of The Etude music magazine with only $250 in cash. The immediate success of his new magazine prompted him to seek larger publishing facilities in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...
in 1884. His need for music content within The Etude resulted in his establishment as a dealer and publisher.
The Presser Company and Presser Foundation
The publishing company that Presser founded was so successful that in 1906 Presser was able to express his appreciation to those who made this success possible by establishing the Presser Home for Retired Music Teachers located on West Johnson Street in the Mount AiryMount Airy, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Mount Airy is a neighborhood of Northwest Philadelphia in the state of Pennsylvania.-Boundaries:Mount Airy is bounded on the northwest by the Cresheim Valley, which is part of Fairmount Park. Beyond this lies Chestnut Hill. On the west side is the Wissahickon Gorge, which is also part of Fairmount...
section of Philadelphia. His philanthropic
Philanthropist
A philanthropist is someone who engages in philanthropy; that is, someone who donates his or her time, money, and/or reputation to charitable causes...
zeal is continued to this day through his foresight in forming the The Presser Foundation in 1916, nine years before his death. Each year, the Presser Foundation awards scholarships, grants and funds specifically to further the cause of music and music education in America.
Following the purchase of the John Church Company
John Church Company
The John Church Company was a 19th-century American publishing company that specialized in sheet music. They had offices in Cincinnati, Ohio; New York, New York; and Chicago, Illinois. The company published the works of John Philip Sousa, Dan Emmett, and other composers.The company was bought out...
in 1930, the Theodore Presser Company acquired the Oliver Ditson
Oliver Ditson
Oliver Ditson was an American businessman and founder of Oliver Ditson and Company, one of the major music publishing houses of the late 19th century. Ditson began his business with Samuel H...
Company in 1931. Through this acquisition, Presser traces its origins to 1783, when Batelle's Book Store (later the Oliver Ditson Company), began a music publishing business in Boston, Massachusetts.
In 1972, the Theodore Presser Company acquired Elkan-Vogel and its locally represented agencies (including Hamelle et cie., Henry Lemoine et cie. and others), making the Theodore Presser Company a major distributor of French music
Music of France
France has a wide variety of indigenous folk music, as well as styles played by immigrants from Africa, Latin America and Asia. In the field of classical music, France has produced a number of legendary composers, while modern pop music has seen the rise of popular French hip hop, techno/funk,...
in the United States.
On August 31, 2004, Presser closed its retail music stores in both King of Prussia and Center City Philadelphia. The company now focuses primarily on publishing and distribution activities from its headquarters in King of Prussia.
In addition to its own catalog, Presser represents the music of more than 70 U.S. and foreign publishers including Universal Edition
Universal Edition
Universal Edition is a classical music publishing firm. Founded in 1901 in Vienna, and originally intended to provide the core classical works and educational works to the Austrian market...
, Peermusic Classical, Éditions Alphonse Leduc
Éditions Alphonse Leduc
The Éditions Alphonse Leduc company is a prominent French music publishing house specializing in classical music. It was created in Paris in 1841.-History:...
, and Bärenreiter-Verlag.
Composers published by Theodore Presser
- Clint Needham
- Samuel AdlerSamuel Adler (composer)Samuel Hans Adler is an American composer and conductor.-Biography:Adler was born to a Jewish family in Mannheim, Germany, the son of Hugo Chaim Adler, a cantor and composer, and Selma Adler. The family fled to the United States in 1939, where Hugo became the cantor of Temple Emanuel in...
- Daniel AsiaDaniel AsiaDaniel Asia is an American composer.Daniel Asia was born in Seattle, Washington, in the United States of America. He received a B.A. degree from Hampshire College and a M.M. from the Yale University School of Music...
- Ronald CaltabianoRonald CaltabianoRonald Caltabiano is an American arts administrator and composer of contemporary classical music, with his music showing elements of modernism and romanticism....
- Chen YiChen Yi (composer)Chen Yi is a Chinese composer of contemporary classical music. She was the first Chinese woman to receive a Master of Arts in music composition from the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing. She is also a violinist....
- Daniel DorffDaniel DorffDaniel Dorff is an American composer, and is regarded as one of the most influential of his generation...
- John DowneyJohn W. DowneyJohn W. Downey was a contemporary classical composer, conductor, pianist and educator. His works have been performed extensively in Western and Eastern Europe, South America, Australia, Africa, the Middle East, Israel, Asia, Mexico and Canada, as well as throughout the United States.- Biography...
- Keith EmersonKeith EmersonKeith Noel Emerson is an English keyboard player and composer. Formerly a member of the Keith Emerson Trio, John Brown's Bodies, The T-Bones, V.I.P.s, P.P. Arnold's backing band, and The Nice , he was a founder of Emerson, Lake & Palmer , one of the early supergroups, in 1970...
- Donald ErbDonald ErbDonald Erb was an American composer best known for large orchestral works such as Concerto for Brass and Orchestra and Ritual Observances.-Early years:...
- Adolphus HailstorkAdolphus HailstorkAdolphus Hailstork is an American composer and educator. He grew up in Albany, New York, where he studied violin, piano, organ, and voice....
- Charles IvesCharles IvesCharles Edward Ives was an American modernist composer. He is one of the first American composers of international renown, though Ives' music was largely ignored during his life, and many of his works went unperformed for many years. Over time, Ives came to be regarded as an "American Original"...
- Stephen JaffeStephen JaffeStephen Jaffe is an American composer of contemporary classical music. He lives in Durham, North Carolina, USA, and serves on the music faculty of Duke University, where he holds the post of Mary and James H. Semans Professor of Music Composition; his colleagues there include composers Scott...
- Martin Kennedy
- William KraftWilliam KraftWilliam Kraft is a composer, conductor, teacher, and percussionist.-Undergrad and Graduate School Years :...
- Thomas Oboe LeeThomas Oboe LeeThomas Oboe Lee is a Chinese American composer.- Life :He and his family left Communist China in 1949, and lived in Hong Kong for ten years until 1959, when he moved to São Paulo, Brazil. He emigrated to the USA in the summer of 1966.His musical education began in Brazil during the Bossa Nova craze...
- David LeisnerDavid LeisnerDavid Leisner is a classical guitarist, composer, teacher at the Manhattan School of Music and one of the leading authorities on focal dystonia, due to being impaired by the injury for 12 years and recovering through methods that he developed and now teaches his students.-Biography:David Leisner...
- Gerald LevinsonGerald LevinsonGerald Levinson is an American composer of contemporary classical music.-Life:At university, he studied with George Crumb, Richard Wernick, and George Rochberg. After college, Levinson went to study composition with Olivier Messiaen at the Paris Conservatory...
- Peter Scott LewisPeter Scott LewisPeter Scott Lewis is an American composer of contemporary classical music. His works have been commissioned and/or performed by the Rotterdam Philharmonic; Chamber Symphony of Princeton; Berkeley Symphony; Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center; Alexander, Orion, and Ciompi String Quartets;...
- Lowell LiebermannLowell LiebermannLowell Liebermann is an American composer, pianist and conductor.At the age of sixteen, Liebermann performed at Carnegie Hall, playing his Piano Sonata, op. 1...
- Robert MuczynskiRobert MuczynskiRobert Muczynski was a contemporary American composer. He was born in Chicago, Illinois. Muczynski studied composition with Alexander Tcherepnin at DePaul University in the late 1940s...
- Jeffrey MumfordJeffrey MumfordJeffrey Mumford or is a U.S. composer who teaches music at Lorain County Community College. He holds degrees from the University of California, Irvine and the University of California, San Diego...
- Carter PannCarter PannCarter Pann is an American composer. He studied composition and piano at the Eastman School of Music and the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, where he earned a Doctor of Musical Arts degree...
- Thomas PasatieriThomas PasatieriThomas Pasatieri is an American opera composer.He began composing at age 10 and, as a teenager, studied with Nadia Boulanger...
- Vincent PersichettiVincent PersichettiVincent Ludwig Persichetti was an American composer, teacher, and pianist. An important musical educator and writer, Persichetti was a native of Philadelphia...
- Marta PtaszynskaMarta PtaszynskaMarta Ptaszyńska is a composer, percussionist and professor of music at the University of Chicago. She has been described as "one of the best known Polish woman composers" as well as "a virtuoso percussionist specializing in performances of contemporary music."-Orchestral music:-Vocal and...
- Shulamit RanShulamit RanShulamit Ran is an Israeli-American composer. She moved from Israel to New York at 14, as a scholarship student at the Mannes College of Music. Her Symphony won her the Pulitzer Prize...
- Behzad RanjbaranBehzad RanjbaranBehzad Ranjbaran is a leading Persian composer.Ranjbaran was born and raised in Iran. He entered the Tehran Conservatory at the age of 9. Ranjbaran continued his study of composition at Indiana University...
- George RochbergGeorge RochbergGeorge Rochberg was an American composer of contemporary classical music.-Life:Rochberg was born in Paterson, New Jersey. He attended the Mannes College of Music, where his teachers included George Szell and Hans Weisse, and the Curtis Institute of Music, where he studied with Rosario Scalero and...
- Carl RugglesCarl RugglesCharles "Carl" Sprague Ruggles was an American composer of the American Five group. He wrote finely crafted pieces using "dissonant counterpoint", a term coined by Charles Seeger to describe Ruggles' music...
- Peter SchickelePeter SchickeleJohann Peter Schickele is an American composer, musical educator, and parodist. He is best known for his comedy music albums featuring his music that he presents as music written by the fictional composer P. D. Q...
- P.D.Q. Bach
- Gary SchockerGary SchockerGary Schocker is a flutist, composer, and pianist who has performed with the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the New Jersey Symphony, the Dallas Symphony, the West German Sinfonia, and I Solisti Italiani among others. He won the Young Concert Artists International Auditions in...
- William SchumanWilliam SchumanWilliam Howard Schuman was an American composer and music administrator.-Life:Born in Manhattan in New York City to Samuel and Rachel Schuman, Schuman was named after the twenty-seventh U.S. president, William Howard Taft, although his family preferred to call him Bill...
- Roger SessionsRoger SessionsRoger Huntington Sessions was an American composer, critic, and teacher of music.-Life:Sessions was born in Brooklyn, New York, to a family that could trace its roots back to the American revolution. His mother, Ruth Huntington Sessions, was a direct descendent of Samuel Huntington, a signer of...
- Ralph ShapeyRalph ShapeyRalph Shapey was an American composer and conductor. He is well-known for his work as a composition professor at the University of Chicago, where he founded and directed the Contemporary Chamber Players...
- Steven StuckySteven StuckySteven Stucky is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer.Stucky was born in Hutchinson, Kansas. At age 9, he moved with his family to Abilene, Texas, where, as a teenager, he studied music in the public schools and, privately, viola with Herbert Preston, conducting with Leo Scheer, and...
- Robert SuderburgRobert SuderburgRobert Suderburg is an American composer, conductor, and pianist.-Biography:The son of a jazz trombonist , Suderburg studied composition with Paul Fetler at the University of Minnesota, where he received a BA in 1957...
- George TsontakisGeorge TsontakisGeorge Tsontakis is an American composer and conductor.Tsontakis studied composition with Hugo Weisgall and Roger Sessions at the Juilliard School from 1974 to 1978, and later with Franco Donatoni at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome...
- Melinda WagnerMelinda WagnerMelinda Wagner is a US composer, and winner of the 1999 Pulitzer Prize in music. Her undergraduate degree is from Hamilton College....
- David Ward-SteinmanDavid Ward-SteinmanDavid Ward-Steinman is an American composer and music professor.Ward-Steinman studied at Florida State University and the University of Illinois, where he received the Kinley Memorial Fellowship for foreign study. After receiving his doctorate, he was a fellow at Princeton University from 1970...
- Hugo WeisgallHugo WeisgallHugo David Weisgall was an American composer and conductor, known chiefly for his opera and vocal music compositions...
- Dan WelcherDan WelcherDan Welcher is an American composer, conductor, and music educator.- Biography :Welcher was born in Rochester, New York and earned degrees from the Eastman School of Music and the Manhattan School of Music, studying bassoon, piano, and composition...
- Richard WernickRichard WernickRichard Wernick in Boston, Massachusetts is a US composer. He is best known for his composition "Visions of Terror and Wonder," which won the 1977 Pulitzer Prize for Music.-Career:...
- Ellen Taaffe Zwilich