Krueger, Karl (Adalbert)

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Krueger, Karl (Adalbert)

American conductor; b. Atchison, Kans., Jan. 19, 1894; d. Elgin, III, July 21, 1979. He learned to play the cello and organ in his early youth, then studied at Midland Coll. in his hometown (B.A. 1913), with Chadwick (composition) and Goodrich (organ) at the New England Cons, of Music in Boston (1914–15), and at the Univ. of Kans. (M.A., 1916). He was an organist at St. Ann’s Episcopal Church in N.Y. (1916–20). In 1920 he made a concert tour of Brazil as an organist; then went to Vienna, where he studied theory with Robert Fuchs and conducting with Franz Schalk. He also attended classes in economics at the univs. of Vienna and Heidelberg. He was conductor of the Seattle Sym. Orch. (1926–32), the Kans. City Phil. (1933–43), and the Detroit Sym. Orch. (1943–49). In 1958 he founded the Soc. for the Preservation of the American Musical Heritage and made numerous recordings of American works. He wrote The Way of the Conductor: His Origins, Purpose and Procedures (N.Y., 1958).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire