Werner Janssen

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Hans-Werner Janssen (1 June 1899 – 19 September 1990) was an American conductor of classical music, and composer of classical music and film scores.

He was the first New York born conductor to lead the New York Philharmonic.

For his film work he was nominated for six Academy Awards.

Personal life

Janssen was married three times, to:

He died on September 19, 1990, at Stony Brook, New York).

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Formative influences and career

Janssen was born in New York City on June 1, 1899. His father, a New York restaurateur and founder of the Janssen Hof Brau Haus on Broadway, was a biologist. The family lived on King's Point Road, next door to singer George M. Cohan, who lived in Great Neck. Cohan encouraged young Werner to play piano and explore his love of music. "I'll hold to my dying day that Werner became a composer because his dad made him play the piano all day to keep me up, not to worry about playing all night and keeping him awake," Cohan says of the family interplay. Werner's first two music students were George M. Cohan's daughters, whom he taught in their household. As a child Werner remembers hearing the first versions of "Over There" from across the fence between the houses, he remembers hearing the first versions of "Over there." As I look back on those days writing to Werner's father, they were "the best of all any days" as I look back on them now.

However, Werner was nonetheless compelled to join the family business, despite the son's impulsion for a musical career. Consequently, after Werner's graduation from Phillips Exeter Academy, he was required to finance his own musical education at Dartmouth College. He did this by being a waiter, appearing in cabarets and theaters, and releasing his own popular compositions. He studied with composer George Chadwick and Frederick Converse at the New England Conservatory of Music. Arthur Friedheim, a Franz Liszt pupil, also studied piano with him.

In World War I, Janssen entered the US military (infantry) in World War I. After the war, he returned to school and earned a bachelor's degree in music at Dartmouth College in 1921. He began composing jazz songs for Tin Pan Alley. In 1920, he appeared on records as a pianist for two of his popular songs. He performed for the Ziegfeld Follies of 1925-1926 and 1926 and wrote many songs that have gone viral. This helped finance his research with Felix Weingartner (1920-21) and Hermann Scherchen in Strasbourg, France (1921–25). In a jazz idiom New York's Eve, he was also given a Juilliard Fellowship and the Rome Prize from the American Academy in Rome for his tone poem for a large orchestra. Howard Hanson conducted the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra for the premiere on May 8, 1929. It was conducted by Nikolai Sokoloff of the Cleveland Orchestra in 1930, and by the Victor Symphony Orchestra conducted by Nathaniel Shilkret in 1929. Shilkret and Janssen were the first two people to change jobs in 1947, with Janssen and his Symphony Orchestra of Los Angeles playing the Genesis Suite, which was created and coauthored by Shilkret.

He had been recruited by NBC to produce symphony concerts on the radio in 1927, but he was dismissed early in the game. Samuel Roxy Rothapfel invited him to act at his Roxy Theater in 1929, but he was soon dismissed from that position as well.

Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia's mentor, Ottorino Respighi, has collaborated on several new compositions, including the Louisiana Suite and the Quartetto di Roma's American Kaleidoscope. His association with the Royal Orchestra of Rome culminated in his invitation to conduct the orchestra. He also worked in Europe (including Berlin, Budapest, Copenhagen, Riga, Stockholm, and Turin). In February 1934, he conducted a complete concert of Jean Sibelius's works in Helsinki. "You might say that tonight, Finland has for the first time discovered my music," Sibelius said at this performance. This deed of a hero achievement of Janssen is the deed of a hero." On March 8, 1936, the Order of the White Rose was presented by the Finnish government for his contribution to Finnish music in his second appearance.

He was named associate conductor of the New York Philharmonic for the 1934-35 season, and on November 8, 1934, he became the first American-born conductor to conduct the orchestra. He served as conductor of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra from 1937 to 1939.

Though Janssen primarily served as a guest conductor, he was also hired to write film music. His first credit film score was for The General Died at Dawn (1936), which had been nominated for an Academy Award, and was the first of six Janssen scored films to be nominated. In 1939, he left his Baltimore Symphony Orchestra to work with film producer Walter Wanger. He made several other film scores, including Blockade (1939), Winter Carnival (1939), Eternally Yours (1940), and The House of Commons (1941), a poet and co-directed by Franchot Tone. He was also responsible for the score for Robin Hood's 1966 German television film production, der edle Ritter (Robin Hood, the Noble Knight). He continued to write non-film compositions, including the Foster Suite (1937), the String Quartet No. 1 and others. 2 (1938), the Octet for Five (1965), and the Quintet for ten Instruments (1968).

He founded the Janssen Symphony in Los Angeles in 1940, which became a rival group to the Los Angeles Philharmonic and a contemporary music forum until 1952. Compositions for this were commissioned by American composers. This group performed and recorded film scores, musical theatre performances, and contemporary musical scores. Numerous recordings were made by Janssen and his Capitol Records bandmates. Janssen formed a joint venture with writer David L. Loew to produce the Musicolor series of classic musical shorts, including Toccata (1946) and Enchanted Lake (1947), both shot in Cinecolor.

Janssen was the music director of the Utah Symphony 1947–47, the Oregon Symphony 1947–49, and the San Diego Philharmonic (1952–54). He has performed at the NBC Symphony Orchestra ("Symphony of the Air") (1956), The Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra (1956–61), and the Vienna Volksoper were among the Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra (1956–611). Karl-Birger Blomdahl's opera Aniara; and Sergei Prokofiev's Opera War and Peace were among the recordings with the former. In the early 1970s, he returned to the United States.

Arthur Judson was the leading man for selecting symphony conductors in this region from 1915 to 1956, and Shilkret cites Crawford as "equal then or at any other time." In his unpublished autobiography (referenced as "Janssen, Werner, and D. Bruce Lockerbee, ca 1980), Shilkret says, "Werner Janssen" of mistakenly bypassing Judson and later being required to pay Judson a commission on all of his (Janssen) performance fees without receiving a single booking from Judson.

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Awards and honours

• Juilliard Fellowship
• Prix de Rome (Rome Prize) for Musical Composition, American Academy in Rome, 1930
• Fellow of the American Academy in Rome, 1930
• Honorary Doctorate in Music (Mus.D. honoris causa) from Dartmouth College, 1935
• Order of the White Rose of Finland, Knight First Class, 1936