David Mannes

David Mannes
David Mannes
Background information
Born	16 February 1866
Origin	New York City
Died	25 April 1959
Occupation(s)	Conductor,educator
Instrument	Violin

David Mannes(16 February 1866 – 25 April 1959) was an Americanviolinist,conductor,educator, andcommunity organizer.

Biography

David Mannes was born in New York in 1866. He studied the violin in Harlem with composer and violinistJohn Thomas Douglass,the son of a freed slave,and later in Berlin withKarel Halíř.Mannes was a violinist in theNew York Symphony Orchestrafrom 1891 and its concertmaster from 1898 to 1912. In 1912 he helped found theColored Music Settlement Schooland in 1916, with his wifeClara Mannes(the daughter ofLeopold Damroschand sister ofWalter Damrosch), theMannes Music School,both inNew York City.

David Mannes was both a musician and an activist. He believed music to be a universal language, and that it could be used to bridge divides between races and social classes in America.

From 1917 to 1941, Mannes conducted free public concerts at the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Great Hall. The series consisted of eight concerts per year, and was funded primarily by John D. Rockefeller. Records indicate that there were 781 in attendance for the very first concert and that by the sixth concert of 1919, attendance was over 7,000. Mannes recruited musicians for the series from the New York Symphony Orchestra, and later the New York Philharmonic when the New York Symphony merged with the Philharmonic Society of New York.

Music Is My Faithis his autobiography. Mannes is also discussed inMaurice Peress' "Dvorak to Duke Ellington: A Conductor Explores America's Music and Its African American Roots."

He died in 1959, aged 93, and was buried inWoodlawn Cemeteryin the Bronx, in the Damrosch Family Plot.

Legacy

His children were musicianLeopold Mannesand writerMarya Mannes.His friends were many, includingJohn D. Rockefeller,John Pierpont Morgan,Ernest Bloch,andJames Reese Europe.Mannes was painted by friend and artistThomas Hart BentoninPortrait of David MannesandEvening Concert.

Further reading

• Mannes, David (1938).Music is My Faith: An AutobiographyW.W. Norton. New York.ISBN0-306-77595-6(1978 reprint)
• Peress, Maurice (2004).Dvorak to Duke Ellington: A Conductor Explores America's Music and Its African American RootsOxford. New York.ISBN0-19-509822-6

External links

• David Mannes - "Music is my Faith, an Autobiography" free download:https://archive.org/details/musicismyfaithan008740mbp