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Joseph Rumshinsky
Joseph Rumshinsky (1881–1956) was a Jewish composer born near Vilna, Lithuania (then part of Russian Poland). Along with Sholom Secunda, Alexander Olshanetsky and Abraham Ellstein, he is considered one of the "big four" composers and conductors of American Yiddish theater.
Joseph Rumshinsky's mother taught singing to local singers and badkhonim (wedding entertainers). As a child, he studied with a cantor. At the age of eight he was called "Yoshke der notn-freser" at the music school where he studied piano. He traveled until 1894 with various Hazzanim. In Grodno he first saw Yiddish theater (Abraham Goldfaden's operetta Shulamis); and joined the chorus of Kaminska's traveling troupe until 1896, when his voice changed. He then became choir director for a cantor named Rabinovitch.
He married the actress Sabrina Laxer. Their son Maury was a pianist and composer as well.
His first composition was a piano waltz which became very popular in Vilna.
In 1897 he became choir director for Borisov's Russian opera/operetta; in 1888 he conducted a full production of Goldfaden's Bar Kokhba. In 1899, in Łódź, he was hired as conductor of the new Hazomir Choral Society, studying and arranging folksongs as well as Haydn, Handel, and Mendelsohn oratorios. He studied with the Polish musician Henryk Meltzer and at the Warsaw Conservatory. In 1903 he left for London to avoid conscription in the czar's army.
In London he met the New Yorker Charles Zunser, the son of the folk bard Eliakum Zunser), who convinced him to emigrate to the United States in 1904. Blocked by the union from working in the theater, he taught piano and wrote compositions including a funeral march commemorating the Kishinev pogrom. 1905-1906 he was director at Boston's Hope Theater. He then returned to New York, where he was still unable to work in theater. He was finally hired, in 1907, as director at Brooklyn's Lyric Theater, and a year later was taken on as conductor and composer at the Windsor Theater thanks to dramatic actor Jacob Adler.
Sholem Perlmutter wrote:
When Rumshinsky arrived in America the musical world looked at him as a stranger. The musicians "club," which at that time ruled over the yiddish theater with iron might, treated him like an unwanted guest and barred his way. The only one to take him seriously was Jacob P. Adler, who instinctively felt Rumshinsky had originality within him ... it was thanks to Adler that Rumshinsky got the chance to show his musical art and ability.
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Joseph Rumshinsky
Joseph Rumshinsky (1881–1956) was a Jewish composer born near Vilna, Lithuania (then part of Russian Poland). Along with Sholom Secunda, Alexander Olshanetsky and Abraham Ellstein, he is considered one of the "big four" composers and conductors of American Yiddish theater.
Joseph Rumshinsky's mother taught singing to local singers and badkhonim (wedding entertainers). As a child, he studied with a cantor. At the age of eight he was called "Yoshke der notn-freser" at the music school where he studied piano. He traveled until 1894 with various Hazzanim. In Grodno he first saw Yiddish theater (Abraham Goldfaden's operetta Shulamis); and joined the chorus of Kaminska's traveling troupe until 1896, when his voice changed. He then became choir director for a cantor named Rabinovitch.
He married the actress Sabrina Laxer. Their son Maury was a pianist and composer as well.
His first composition was a piano waltz which became very popular in Vilna.
In 1897 he became choir director for Borisov's Russian opera/operetta; in 1888 he conducted a full production of Goldfaden's Bar Kokhba. In 1899, in Łódź, he was hired as conductor of the new Hazomir Choral Society, studying and arranging folksongs as well as Haydn, Handel, and Mendelsohn oratorios. He studied with the Polish musician Henryk Meltzer and at the Warsaw Conservatory. In 1903 he left for London to avoid conscription in the czar's army.
In London he met the New Yorker Charles Zunser, the son of the folk bard Eliakum Zunser), who convinced him to emigrate to the United States in 1904. Blocked by the union from working in the theater, he taught piano and wrote compositions including a funeral march commemorating the Kishinev pogrom. 1905-1906 he was director at Boston's Hope Theater. He then returned to New York, where he was still unable to work in theater. He was finally hired, in 1907, as director at Brooklyn's Lyric Theater, and a year later was taken on as conductor and composer at the Windsor Theater thanks to dramatic actor Jacob Adler.
Sholem Perlmutter wrote:
When Rumshinsky arrived in America the musical world looked at him as a stranger. The musicians "club," which at that time ruled over the yiddish theater with iron might, treated him like an unwanted guest and barred his way. The only one to take him seriously was Jacob P. Adler, who instinctively felt Rumshinsky had originality within him ... it was thanks to Adler that Rumshinsky got the chance to show his musical art and ability.