Jan Meyerowitz


Jan Meyerowitz was a German–American composer, conductor, pianist and writer.

Life

Meyerowitz was born Hans-Hermann Meyerowitz in Breslau, the son of a manufacturer. From 1927, he studied in Berlin with Walter Gmeindl and Alexander von Zemlinsky. In 1933, he was forced to leave Germany because he was Jewish and continue his education in Rome with Ottorino Respighi, Alfredo Casella and the conductor Bernardino Molinari. In 1938, he moved to Belgium and in 1939 to the South of France, where he made contact with the French Resistance. His future wife, the singer Marguerite Fricker, helped him in Marseille to survive the Nazi occupation of France.
In 1946 Meyerowitz emigrated to the U.S. and became an assistant to Boris Goldovsky, director of the opera program at Tanglewood. In 1951 he became an American citizen. Meyerowitz taught at Brooklyn College and at the City College of New York. In 1956 Meyerowitz was awarded the first of two Guggenheim Fellowships. After his retirement, he returned to France where he died in Colmar.

Selected works

Compositions

Stage works