Eugene Kash

Eugene "Jack" Leon Kash (born May 1, 1912 in Toronto ; † March 6, 2004 ibid) was a Canadian violinist, conductor and music teacher.

Life

Kash had violin lessons from 1918 to 1928 with Luigi von Kunits . He continued his training at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia with Arthur Meieff (1928–31) and until 1925 in Czechoslovakia with Otakar Ševčík and at the Vienna Music Academy with Bronisław Huberman . He played in the New Vienna Concert Orchestra under Hermann Scherchen , Otto Klemperer and Pierre Monteux and in 1935 attended William Primrose's master class in London. He completed his violin training with Kathleen Parlow in Toronto (1930–1941) and Demetrius Constantine Dounis in New York (1947), and in the 1950s he took conducting lessons with William Steinberg and Igor Markevitch .

From 1934 to 1942 Kash was a member of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and played in the radio orchestras of the CBC . From 1942 he worked for the National Film Board of Canada , whose musical director he was from 1948 to 1950. He was also concertmaster from 1944 and from 1950 to 1957 conductor of the Ottawa Philharmonic Orchestra , with which he founded a successful series of children's concerts, about which the documentary Children's Concert was made in 1949 . As a violinist, he gave concerts with Greta Kraus and Pearl Palmason in the 1940s and 1950s, and in 1952 gave the world premiere of Murray Adaskin's Sonatina baroque . In the Ohio State University award-winning CBC television series The Magic of Music (1955-1958), he introduced children to instrument science, music history and theory.

In 1957 Cash married the singer Maureen Forrester , with whom he performed regularly at the Casals Festival in Puerto Rico between 1961 and 1975 . Their children Linda and Daniel Kash both became actors. In the 1960s, Cash devoted himself particularly to musical education for children and teenagers, for example as director of the youth concerts of the Fairfield County Symphony Orchestra (1961–1964) and conductor of the youth concerts of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra . In 1971 he played violin sonatas with pianist John Newmark on the CBC Musicscope radio series .

From 1967 to 1971 Kash taught at the Philadelphia Music Academy , then until 1973 at York University . From 1975 until his death in 2004 he taught violin, viola and conducting at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto. He also directed Toronto's Etobicoke Philharmonic Orchestra from 1975 to 1985 and the North York Teachers' Orchestra from 1975 to 1980 .

In 1997 Favaro-Mallen Films Inc. produced the documentary Eugene Kash: Passionate Flight . The Royal Conservatory honored him with a concert on his 90th birthday in 2002, and in 2004 he was honored with the Queen's Silver Jubilee Medal and the City of Toronto Award of Merit .

Eugene Kash died on March 6, 2004 in his hometown of Toronto.

source

• Eugene Kash ( English, French ) In: Encyclopedia of Music in Canada . published by The Canadian Encyclopedia .
• Eugene Kash in the Internet Movie Database (English)