Reiser, Alois
Reiser, Alois
Reiser, Alois , Czech-American composer; b. Prague, April 6, 1887; d. Los Angeles, April 4, 1977. He studied composition with Dvoïâk, and also took cello lessons and toured Europe. He later emigrated to the U.S. and played cello with the Pittsburgh Sym. Orch. and the N.Y. Sym. Orch. From 1918 to 1929 he was engaged as a theater conductor in N.Y. In 1929 he settled in Hollywood, where he worked as a composer and conductor at film studios. His works adhere to the established style of European Romanticism; typical of these are Slavic Rhapsody, which he conducted in Los Angeles on March 8, 1931, and Erewhon, which he conducted there on Jan. 24, 1936. He composed a Cello Concerto, which he performed in Los Angeles on March 23, 1933; also a considerable amount of chamber music. He wrote an opera, Gobi, in which he painted in tones the great Asian desert; it had its first and last performance in N.Y. on July 29, 1923, and even then only in concert excerpts.
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire