Kapp, Richard
Kapp, Richard
Kapp, Richard, American conductor; b. Chicago, Oct. 9, 1936. He studied at Johns Hopkins Univ. (B.A., 1957), then took courses in conducting, composition, and piano at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik in Stuttgart. Returning to the U.S., he studied jurisprudence at N.Y.U. (J.D., 1966) and had private lessons with Rosbaud and Halasz in conducting, Simon in piano, and Marlowe in harpsichord. He began his musical career as a répétiteur at the Basel Stadttheater (1960–62), and then was music director of the Opera Theater of the Manhattan School of Music in N.Y. (1963–65). In 1968 he led a concert in N.Y. with a specially assembled group billed as the Philharmonia Virtuosi, and later toured with it in programs of varied repertoire, from Baroque to jazz.
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire