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Michael Graubart (26 November 1930 – 10 June 2024) was an Austrian-born British conductor, composer and academic, born in Vienna and exiled after the Anschluss. He lived and worked in London and Manchester for the rest of his life.
Graubart was born into an Austrian Jewish family. Following the murder of his uncle Richard Graubart in 1938Thomas Albrich (ed.): The perpetrators of the 1938 pogrom against the Jews in Innsbruck, Innsbruck: Haymon (2016) the family escaped to the UK by train.Michael Graubart. Royal College of Music He studied physics at the University of Manchester University, graduating in 1952, and worked as an electronics engineer for EMI for several years. After that he taught mathematics, physics and music at various schools and colleges.Michael Graubart. Biography at Classical Music Daily
Musical career After studying composition with Mátyás Seiber, flute with Geoffrey Gilbert and conducting with Lawrence Leonard, Graubart became a teacher and conductor at Morley College and was appointed head of department in 1969 when John Gardner retired, staying there until 1991.Music at Morley, BBC Radio 3, 22 August, 1974 He began conducting various professional and amateur choirs and orchestras, including the Hampstead Chamber Orchestra from 1962 until 1966.'Graubart, Michael', in The Oxford Dictionary of Music, 6th. ed. (2012) From 1962 to 1972 he was also musical director of the Focus Opera Group. In 1969 he conducted the world premiere of the opera Isis and Osiris by Elisabeth Lutyens,Rhiannon Mathias. Lutyens, Maconchy, Williams and Twentieth-Century British Music (2016), p. 197 and conducted the British premiere of Viktor Ullmann's opera The Emperor of Atlantis in 1981.Michael Graubart, "The Emperor of Atlantis: The First British Production", The Musical Times, Autumn 2009.
In 1991 Graubart was appointed senior lecturer at the Royal Northern College of Music, where he directed the new music ensemble Akanthos. He published articles and reviews in musical journals including Composer, Encounter, Tempofor instance, 'Schoenberg's String Quartets', in Tempo, 2004-07, Vol.58, No. 229, p. 41–46 and The Musical Times and edited early music, including operas by Monteverdi and Pergolesi.
He retired from full-time teaching in 1996 but continued to lecture and to compose orchestral, chamber, instrumental and choral music.List of works, British Music Collection As a composer he adopted the Viennese 12-note tradition using clear motifs and themes, sometimes incorporating electronics. His works include the orchestral piece Aria (1973), and a string quartet (2000), which has been performed by the Arditti Quartet and others.Musicians Directory profileHear and Now, BBC Radio 3, Sat 12th April 2008
Graubart died in London on 10 June 2024, at the age of 93.Florence Lockheart. 'Conductor Michael Graubart Dies Aged 93', in Classical Music, 4 July 2024.
See also List of émigré composers in Britain
References
External links Video interview with Michael Graubart, Royal College of Music Quasi una Sonata: Mosaic - Chiasmus für Klavier, (1978), performed by Rafał Mokrzyckí