John F. Bitter (April 8, 1909 – November 9, 2001)ancestry.com was an American musician, composer, and orchestra conductor who served as the second dean of the School of Music at the University of Miami from 1950 to 1963. He was also music director and conductor of the University of Miami Symphony Orchestra.The Miami News (Miami, Florida), 11 Feb 1951, newspapers.com Guest artists who appeared with the University of Miami Symphony Orchestra under his baton included pianist Artur Rubinstein, cellist Gregor Piatigorsky, and violinist Mischa Elman.The Miami News (Miami, Florida), 09 Oct 1955, newspapers.com
Early life Born on April 8, 1909, in Manhattan, New York,New York birth index 1878-1909, ancestry.com John Bitter's parents were concert singer Marie A. Schevill and American sculptor Karl Bitter.The Miami News (Miami, Florida), 23 Oct 1955 He first played the violin, then switched to flute and conducting. He had two siblings, physicist Francis T. R. Bitter who helped establish the National Magnet Laboratory at MIT,Guide to the Papers of Francis Bitter, 1925-1967 MC.0077, https://libraries.mit.edu/archives/research/collections/collections-mc/mc77.html and professional harpist Marietta C. E. Bitter who was married to actor Walter Abel.The Miami News (Miami, Florida), 07 Dec 1941, newspapers.comNew York Times, November 7, 1979, New York Times archives
In 1915 his father was struck and killed by a car, after leaving a performance at the Metropolitan Opera in New York.Wikipedia, Karl Bitter.
John Bitter attended Curtis Institute of Music on a music scholarship, where he met composers Samuel Barber and Gian Carlo Menotti and was assistant to conductor Leopold Stokowski.News-Press (Fort Myers, Florida), May 6, 1939 He conducted Barber's Adagio for Strings and Menotti's Amahl and the Night Visitors throughout his career.
In 1934 he married visual artist Dorothy Michelson Dick, daughter of physicist Albert A. Michelson. Dorothy and John Bitter lived in Jacksonville, Florida and raised two daughters, Dorothy Dick (b. 1928)United States Federal Census 1935, ancestry.com and Ursula Bitter (b. 1936) who graduated with a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Miami in 1959.University of Miami Archives, Commencement program, February 1959
Music career John Bitter's first professional music appointments were as conductor of the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra (1934–1937), and conductor of the Florida Federal Symphony (1937–1939). He was also associate conductor of Leopold Stokowski's All American Youth Orchestra (1940–1941).
He subsequently served as conductor of the University of Miami Symphony Orchestra from 1940 to 1942, then enlisted in the US Army during World War II in 1943Ancestry.com. U.S., Department of Veterans Affairs BIRLS Death File, 1850-2010 and served for five years as an intelligence officer with the Ninth Army.U.S., World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1938-1946, ancestry.comMusic and Politics, Volume VII, Issue 1, Winter 2013 He stayed on after the war in Berlin, and assisted with US cultural re-education efforts as the American Military Government's Information Control Division (ICD)'s supervisor and military license holder for the Berlin Philharmonic. He also conducted the Berlin Philharmonic 30 times between 1945 and 1948, and was guest conductor of the Dresden Symphony OrchestraSettling Scores: German Music, Denazification, and the Americans, 1945-1953, by David Monod, University of North Carolina Press and the Hamburg Philharmonic.
He divorced, and in 1947 married England-born Barbara Buttery Pinion (1918–2013),Tallahassee Democrat, June 16, 2013 a research analyst for the WRAF and a document analyst during the Nuremberg Trials (1945–1946).The Times (London, England), The Nuremberg Typist and Translator, May 5, 2012Phillips Nuremberg Trials Collection: The Trials, University of Georgia Law Library, http://libguides.law.uga.edu/c.php?g=177170&p=1164681 A daughter Robin Simonetta Bitter was born in Florence, Italy in 1950.England, Andrews Newspaper Index Cards, 1790-1976, ancestry.com
Bitter and his family moved to Miami, Florida, in 1950 when he was named dean of the University of Miami School of Music (renamed Frost School of Music in 2003) and music director and conductor of the University of Miami Symphony Orchestra. A daughter Noel Lesley Bitter was born in Miami in 1952England, Andrews Newspaper Index Cards, 1790-1976 and a third daughter Marietta Barbara Bitter was born in 1957.Tallahassee Democrat, June 16, 2013; Ancestry.com
Bitter conducted the University of Miami Symphony Orchestra for 13 seasons with subscribers at both the Miami Beach Municipal Auditorium and the Dade County Auditorium. Concerts featured prominent guest soloists of the day including violinist Yehudi Menuhin, cellist Leonard Rose, soprano Beverly Sills, and pianist Gina Bachauer. He also invited a steady stream of guest conductors including Igor Stravinsky, Heitor Villa-Lobos, Andre Kostelanetz, and Arthur Fiedler.Advertisement page 10E, Miami News, 02 February 1957, University of Miami Symphony Orchestra 31st season 1957–1958, newspapers.comMiami News, 13 April 1958Miami News, 21 October 1956 University of Miami music faculty and students performed in the orchestra.
In 1950 he also established a decade-long Miami Beach Summer Pops Concerts series presented by the University of Miami Summer Symphony Orchestra at the Miami Beach Auditorium. Its programming featured guest conductors such as Paul Whiteman and Skitch Henderson, and Bitter conducted concerts featuring soloists such as Cuban pianist Jorge Bolet.The Miami News, 12 April 1953, "Beach Pops Concerts Will Start in June" by Marion Burdine, newspapers.com
Bitter also guest conducted during the summer months at venues such as the Brevard Music Center in Asheville, North Carolina.Asheville Citizen-Times (Asheville, North Carolina) 13, July 1957 In 1959, he conducted the Naumburg Orchestral Concerts, in the Naumburg Bandshell, Central Park, in the summer series.
Executive career After his retirement from the University of Miami in 1964, Bitter was an executive in the insurance and real estate industries for two decades, and was the honorary Consul for Germany in Miami (1969–1978).Dr. John Bitter Collection, University of Miami Archives and Special CollectionsNaples Daily News (Naples, Florida), "West Germany's Consul" by Jon Broder, 23 October 1955, newspapers.com
In the 1980s he returned to teaching music as an adjunct professor at Florida International University. He became legally blind in 1989, at age 80.Daily News (Newport News, Virginia), June 06, 1990
He died on November 9, 2001, at the age of 92 and is buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.National Cemetery Administration. U.S. Veterans' Gravesites, ca.1775-2006
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