Harth, Sidney
Harth, Sidney
Harth, Sidney, American violinist, conductor, and pedagogue; b. Cleveland, Oct. 5, 1925. He studied at the Cleveland Inst. of Music (Mus.B., 1947), and then took lessons with Joseph Fuchs and Georges Enesco. He was a recipient of the Naumburg prize in 1948 and made his debut at Carnegie Hall in N.Y. in 1949. He served as concertmaster and asst. conductor of the Louisville Orch. (1953–58), then was concertmaster of the Chicago Sym. Orch. (1959–62) and of the Casals Festival Orch. in San Juan (1959-65; 1972). From 1963 to 1973 he was a prof, of music and chairman of the music dept. at Carnegie-Mellon Univ. in Pittsburgh. He served as concertmaster and assoc. conductor of the Los Angeles Phil. (1973–79), was interim concertmaster of the N.Y Phil, in 1980, and also served as music director of the Puerto Rico Sym. Orch. (1977–79). He was director of orch. studies at the Mannes Coll. of Music in N.Y (1981–84), prof, of violin at the State Univ. of N.Y at Stony Brook (1981–82) and at the Yale Univ. School of Music (from 1982), and director of orch. studies at Carnegie-Mellon Univ. (1989–90). From 1990 to 1993 he was music director of the Northwest Chamber Orch. He also was director of orch. activities at the Hartt School of Music in Hartford, Conn. (1991–93). With his wife, Teresa Testa Harth, he gave duo-violin concerts.
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire