Clara Damrosch Mannes
born Breslau, December 12, 1869; died New York, March 16, 1948
Documents associated with this person:
German, later American, pianist and teacher.
Career Summary
Clara Damrosch was the daughter of the violinist, conductor, and composer Leopold Damrosch (1832‒85), who moved from Breslau to New York in 1871. Clara studied piano in New York as a child, then in Dresden, later in Berlin with Busoni (1897). In 1898 she married the American violinist, conductor, and educator David Mannes. For twenty years she toured with him, giving recitals.
In 1916 the couple founded the David Mannes Music School, of which they were co-directors.
The Schenker Circle and Clara Mannes
David and Clara Mannes appointed Schenker's pupil Hans Weisse in 1931 to teach music theory, and subsequently Weisse's and Schenker's pupil Felix Salzer, and in so doing made the Mannes School of Music the principal vehicle for the transmission of Schenker's theories into the United States. When Weisse first arrived in New York in September 1931, David and Clara, Weisse reported to Schenker: "look after me as parents, in whose home a thoroughly European atmosphere reigns, and with whom collaboration is an unalloyed pleasure" (OJ 15/16, [82]).
Sources
- Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians (1971)