Wagner and Clam Fritters – a Talk by Joseph Horowitz

When Anton Seidl – once the most charismatic personality in American classical music — led the American premiere of Tristan und Isolde at the Met in 1886, women “stood on their chairs and screamed.” In summertime, he led Wagner concerts fourteen times a week at Coney Island (parodied in the press as “Wagner and clam fritters”). What was going on? How does Wagnerism change our picture of the “Gilded Age”? Why does it matter today?”

IMPORTANT NOTE: DUE TO THE CELEBRATION OF THE JEWISH HOLIDAY OF SUKHOT OUR REGULAR MEETING PLACE AT THE JCC IS NOT AVAILABLE ON THIS DATE SO INSTEAD THIS IN-PERSON MEETING WILL TAKE PLACE AT THE UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST CHURCH ON CATHEDRAL HILL AT THE CORNER OF FRANKLIN & GEARY STREET IN SAN FRANCISCO.

Join us for a fascinating talk by Joseph Horowitz, the noted author of “Wagner Nights”, his invaluable history of the early years of Wagnerism in America. He has now covered the same era, not as a scholarly work, but in “The Disciple”, a novel derived from his years of research and deep attachment to the charismatic Seidl and the larger-than-life figures of this era.

Joseph Horowitz is an award-winning author, concert producer, film-maker, broadcaster, and pianist/composer. He is one of the most prominent and widely published writers on topics in American music. As an orchestral administrator and advisor, he has been a pioneering force in the development of thematic programming and new concert formats.

As an author, Horowitz’s recent books have included a novel, “The Marriage: The Mahlers in New York”, “The Propaganda of Freedom: JFK, Shostakovich, Stravinsky, and the Cold War“, “Dvorak’s Prophecy and the Vexed Fate of Black Classical Music”  which was published in tandem with a series of documentary films produced for Naxos that led to an ongoing series of 50-minute “More than Music” documentaries on NPR. Horowitz’s other books mainly deal with the history of classical music in the United States. “Understanding Toscanini: How He Became an American Culture-God and Helped Create a New Audience for Old Music”, “Classical Music in America: A History of Its Rise and Fall”, “Artists in Exile: How Refugees from Twentieth Century War and Revolution Transformed the American Performing Arts”.

Beyond his publications he served as Executive Director of the Brooklyn Philharmonic in the 1990s, pioneering humanities-infused public programming (“Dvorak and America,” “The Russian Stravinsky,” “American Transcendentalists,” etc.) and later working as curator of the Pacific Symphony’s annual American Composers Festival, the Winter Festival for the New Jersey Symphony, and as co-founder and Executive Director of Washington DC’s PostClassical Ensemble. As director, he has overseen festivals celebrating the Charles Ives Sesquicentenary in 2024, as well as festivals exploring Black classical music and the international impact of American jazz.

He has been an advisor to Naxos’s “American Classics” series, producing CDs featuring never before recorded works as well as DVD versions of the films “Redes,” “The City,” “The River,” and “The Plow that Broke the Plains”. ​Post-Covid, Horowitz has also become active as a composer and performer. His works include a bass trombone concertino, “Mahlerei”. A song cycle “Einsamkeit” (also with bass trombonist David Taylor) adapts songs by Mahler and Schubert was premiered with dancers. More recently, Taylor and Horowitz have begun performing their version of Schubert’s Winterreise, including a concert at Bargemusic (Brooklyn, NY). As a vocal accompanist, Horowitz frequently performs with tenor George Shirley and the baritone Sidney Outlaw. His Hiawatha Melodrama (in collaboration with Michael Beckerman) has been widely programmed and has been recorded by Naxos.

A New York Times music critic (1976–80), he is the recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the NEH (twice), NYU, Columbia University, and CUNY and was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by DePauw University. He has taught at the New England Conservatory, Colorado College, the Mannes School, the Manhattan School of Music, and SUNY-Purchase.

More information on his biography and links to his blog and the NPR documentaries are available https://www.josephhorowitz.com/