Alfred Szendrei, also Alfred Sendrey and Aladár Szendrei – 29 February 1884 – 3 March 1976) was an American musicologist, organist, conductor, composer of Hungarn origin. He was one of the leading conductors and pioneers of German radio. In exile he changed his Hungarian surname "Szendrei" to the Americanized spelling "Sendrey".
Life and career
Szendrei was born in 1884 to a Hungarian middle class family in Budapest ; his father was a civil servant. From the age of six he learned to play the piano. At the request of his parents, he first studied jurisprudence at the Corvinus University of Budapest. From 1900 to 1905 he studied music with Hans Koessler at the university and Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest. Afterwards he worked as Kapellmeister and répétiteur at the Cologne Opera, in Mulhouse, Brünn, Philadelphia and Chicago, at the Hamburg State Opera, New York City, Berlin and Vienna. During the First World War he served in the Austro-Hungarian army. In 1931 he received his doctorate from the University of Leipzig with his dissertation "Rundfunk und Musikpflege" and graduated as phil. in musicology. From 1918 onwards he worked in Leipzig, from 1924 as Kapellmeister at the Leipzig Opera. In the same year he became music director of the. He was also first conductor of the MDR Sinfonieorchester. Due to the growing anti-Semitism he lost this position in 1931 because of his Jewish descent. He had previously been denounced by the musicologists Herbert Gerigk and Theophil Stengel among others. From 1931 to 1933 he was music director of the Berliner Rundfunk and teacher at the Klindworth-Scharwenka Conservatory in Berlin. After his emigration to France, he worked from 1933 to 1940 as program director at Radiodiffusion nationale in Paris. When the Germans attacked France in May and June 1939, he fled to the USA. There he changed his name to "Sendrey". He first worked as a translator for the United States Department of State. Later he was invited by Abraham Binder to the Jewish community center 92nd Street YMCA in New York City. From 1944 to 1952 he was a professor at Westlake College of Music in Los Angeles. From 1952 to 1956 he was music director of the Fairfax Synogogue and from 1950 to 1963 music director and organist of the Sinai Temple. From 1961 he was professor of musicology at the Jewish Theological Seminary of the School of Fine Arts of the American Jewish University in Los Angeles. In 1967 he was awarded the title of Honorary Doctor. Sendrey died in 1976 in Los Angeles New Hospital at age 92. The funeral service took place with the participation of the Jewish community in the Sinai Temple in Westwood, Los Angeles.
