16 Facts About Samuel Gardner

Samuel Gardner was an American composer and violinist of Russian Jewish origin.

Samuel Gardner won a Pulitzer Prize with a string quartet in 1918.

Samuel Gardner was a student of Franz Kneisel and Percy Goetschius, and began his career as a concert violinist; among his compositions is a violin concerto.

Samuel Gardner was born August 25,1891, in Elizavethgrad, Russian Empire, and was brought to the United States at the age of one.

Samuel Gardner's family settled in Providence, Rhode Island, where Gardner attended elementary and high school.

Samuel Gardner continued his studies in Boston with Charles Martin Loeffler and Felix Winternitz from 1902 to 1908.

At the New York Institute of Musical Art, Gardner studied violin with Franz Kneisel and composition with Percy Goetschius.

Samuel Gardner made his New York debut in 1913, played 2nd violin in the Kneisel Quartet from 1914 to 1915, performed with the Chicago Symphony in 1915, and toured with the Elshuco Trio in 1916 and 1917.

Samuel Gardner premiered his own Violin Concerto in 1918 with the Boston Symphony Orchestra under Pierre Monteux.

Samuel Gardner taught at Columbia University, the University of Wisconsin, the Hartt School of Music, and the Atlanta School of music.

Samuel Gardner published a number of pedagogical works which include a method for violin and his Harmonic Thinking school of string playing.

Samuel Gardner's conducting appearances included the premiere of his symphonic poem New Russia in 1921 with the Philadelphia Orchestra and the first performance of his Broadway with the Boston Symphony in 1930.

From 1938 to 1939, Samuel Gardner conducted for the Federal Music Project in New York, and in 1946 he became the first Conductor and Music Director of the Staten Island Symphony.

Samuel Gardner received a prize from the Pulitzer Foundation for his Second String Quartet, the Loeb Prize for a symphonic poem, and an honorary doctorate from the New York College of Music.

The composer of many violin works, Samuel Gardner was especially renowned for "From the Canebrake," which is still a standard encore piece for violinists.

Samuel Gardner died in New York on January 23,1984.