Ruth Kisch-Arndt

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ruth Kisch-Arndt (born July 10, 1898 in Goldberg , Silesia , as Ruth Cohn , † January 1975 in Jerusalem ) was a German-American oratorio and concert singer ( alto ) and professor of music at Yeshiva University in New York .

After the National Socialists came to power in 1933, like many Jewish artists, she was ostracized and banned from public appearances. Together with her husband, the cardiologist Bruno Kisch , she had to emigrate from Germany to the United States in 1938 , where she was able to continue her singing career.

Life

Ruth Cohn was born in Goldberg / Silesia in 1898 as the daughter of Arnold Arndt and his wife Caroline Friederika (née Cohn) . She studied music and singing in Berlin , Basel and Milan . From the mid-1920s she appeared as a soloist on various stages, including the 10th Niederrheinische Musikfest in Elberfeld (1927), the Beethoven Festival in Bonn (1927), the Hamburg Jubilee Festival (1928) and Cologne with the Gürzenich Orchestra (1925-1932). She specialized in the interpretation of works by Franz Schubert , Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy , Franz Liszt and Richard Wagner as well as oratorios and songs of the 19th century. In 1928 she married the cardiologist Bruno Kisch and moved to Cologne . Since 1929 she has been involved in the Cologne artist association GEDOK . Ruth Arndt-Kisch also gave singing lessons in Cologne. Erich Liffmann was one of her students . In the following years the children Charlotte (1929), Regina (1931) and Arnold (1933) were born.

After the National Socialists came to power , the Jewish artist did not receive any public and a little later no more free engagements. In addition to Ruth Kisch-Arndt, numerous renowned Jewish artists such as the tenor Leonardo Aramesco and the pianist Alice Krieger-Isaac were affected by unemployment in Cologne . As a result of increasing marginalization, Ruth Kisch-Arndt, like the other Jewish artists, was forced to leave GEDOK. After 1933 she only appeared at private concerts and events of the Jewish Cultural Association and the Jewish Art Community in Cologne .

In 1934 she took a concert tour of the Jewish Cultural Association with Gitanjali songs together with Ottilie Metzger-Lattermann through 14 German cities and to Paris to the Sorbonne . Ruth Kisch-Arndt was excluded from the Reich Chamber of Music because of her religious affiliation . Shortly before emigrating, she gave - together with Hermann Schey - numerous concerts for the Jewish Winter Aid . After her husband was forced to give up his practice, the family emigrated to the United States in December 1938.

In New York, Ruth Kisch-Arndt initially continued her career as a singer to a limited extent. In the 1940s she appeared at numerous American music festivals, including the 1941 New York Festival for Jewish Art and the Schubert Festival in Philadelphia and in 1942 at the Brahms Festival in Philadelphia. Since 1945 she has presented songs by Jewish composers from four centuries. Since the mid-1940s she taught at the New York College of Music and published music theory texts. Her students included u. a. Cornelius L. Reid .

After the end of the Second World War , she made guest appearances again in numerous European countries and in Israel . At the end of 1952, she and her husband visited Germany again for the first time. She taught as a professor at the private Jewish Yeshiva University . Ruth Kisch-Arndt was one of the first female teachers at Stern College for Women , which was founded in 1954 and was employed as Assistant Professor of Music from 1960 . Here she taught among others Roberta Peters . Ruth Kisch-Arndt was a founding member and temporarily director of the Early Music Foundation .

In 1971 she moved to Israel, where she died in Jerusalem in January 1975.

family

Ruth Kisch-Arndt was the niece of the physicist Felix Auerbach . After his suicide in February 1933, she inherited the portrait of Auerbach painted by Edvard Munch in 1906, which was shown on permanent loan at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York from 1971 to 1980 . After the auction in May 1980, the painting was in private collections before it could be acquired by the Van Gogh Museum in 2017 and has been on display in Amsterdam since January 2018 .

Her husband, the cardiologist Bruno Kisch, was the son of the rabbi of the Maisel Synagogue in Prague . His cousin was the writer Egon Erwin Kisch , his brother the lawyer Guido Kisch .

Literature by Ruth Kisch-Arndt

  • A primer of stylesinging , 1948
  • Solfeges D 'Italie: Vocal Exercises of the Bel Canto , 1956
  • A Portrait of Felix Auerbach by Munch , 1964

literature

  • Institute for Contemporary History / Research Foundation for Jewish Immigration (Ed.) In collaboration with Werner Röder and Herbert A. Strauss : Biographisches Handbuch der Deutschensprachigen Emigration nach 1933-1945 . Volume 2: The Arts, Sciences and Literature , KG Saur Munich 1983, ISBN 978-3-11-097027-2 , p. 623

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Joseph Walk (ed.): Short biographies on the history of the Jews 1918–1945. Edited by the Leo Baeck Institute, Jerusalem. Saur, Munich 1988, ISBN 3-598-10477-4 , p. 194.
  2. ↑ Imgard Scharberth: Gürzenich Orchestra from 1888 to 1988 . 2nd Edition. Wienand, Cologne 1988, ISBN 3-87909-189-7 , pp. 237 ff .
  3. ^ Ruth Kisch-Arendt | Jewish Women's Archive. Retrieved May 13, 2019 .
  4. ↑ a b Herbert A. Strauss: Ruth Kisch-Arndt . In: Research Foundation for Jewish Immigration New York (Hrsg.): Biographisches Handbuch der Deutschensprachigen Emigration nach 1933-1945 . 2: The Arts, Sciences, and Literature. De Gruyter, 1983, ISBN 3-11-097027-9 , pp. 623 .
  5. ^ Jewish Museum Berlin: Concert program of the Jewish Lehrhaus and the Nassau Lodge in Wiesbaden. Retrieved May 13, 2019 .
  6. ^ Elfi Pracht: Jewish cultural work in Cologne 1933 - 1941 . In: History in Cologne . tape 29 , no. 1 . Cologne 1991, p. 119-156 .
  7. ↑ Amaury Du Closel: Les voix étouffées du Troisième Reich: degenerate music . Actes Sud, Arles 2004, ISBN 2-7427-5264-1 , pp. 235 .
  8. ^ Herbert A. Strauss: Ruth Kisch-Arndt . In: Institute for Contemporary History / Research Foundation for Jewish Immigration, New York (Ed.): Biographical Handbook of German-Speaking Emigration after 1933-1945 . Arts. De Gruyter, 1983, ISBN 3-11-097027-9 , pp. 623 .
  9. ^ Ruth Kisch-Arendt | Jewish Women's Archive. Retrieved June 7, 2019 .
  10. ↑ Deena Schwimmer: “Female Firsts” at Yeshiva University | Library. Retrieved June 10, 2019 (American English).
  11. ^ Leo Baeck Institute Archives (ed.): Guido Kisch Collection 1799-1981: Concert announcement of the Early Music Foundation . 1959 ( archive.org [accessed June 10, 2019]).
  12. ^ Edvard Munch, Portrait of Felix Auerbach, 1906. Retrieved June 10, 2019 (British English).
  13. ↑ Barbara Happe; Martin S. Fischer: House Auerbach by Walter Gropius with Adolf Meyer . Jovis Verlag GmbH, Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-86859-564-2 , p. 102 f .
  14. ^ Bauhaus-Archiv: Correspondence between Walter Gropius, Ruth Kisch-Arndt - sending of the special print about the Auerbach portrait by Edvard Munch. Retrieved June 10, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Kisch-Arndt, Ruth
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Cohn, Ruth (maiden name); Kisch, Ruth
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Oratorio and concert singer (alto)
DATE OF BIRTH July 10, 1898
PLACE OF BIRTH Goldberg , Province of Silesia
DATE OF DEATH January 1975
Place of death Jerusalem