(Re)Made in America: Émigrés, Identities, and Three Los Angeles Orchestras (1933–45)

Abstract

Throughout the 1930s and 40s, the United States played host to thousands of European émigrés who were fleeing the spread of fascism in their homelands, namely the dangerous policies of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime. While many of these refugees settled on the East Coast, a surprising majority headed west for the sunny prospects of Southern California and, in particular, Los Angeles. What resulted was a truly remarkable community of some of the twentieth century’s brightest musical and artistic minds.

Alongside the mental and emotional tolls of adapting to life in a new country, the issues put forth by American musical institutions—and their surrounding cast of conductors, composers, newspaper critics, arts administrators, patrons, and community leaders—created a vibrant and often dizzying whirlwind of discourse, occasionally leaving the émigrés wondering how best to contribute. The ways in which this played out in Los Angeles specifically present a fascinating microcosm of American classical music culture and reveal the disparate ideologies, objectives, and ambitions that contributed to the identities of local institutions—and the émigrés themselves—during a pivotal juncture in history.

This dissertation examines select moments of intersection between European émigrés and Los Angeles orchestras in the 1930s and 40s, focusing specifically on how four institutions variously built and expressed distinct identities—European, American, or Angeleno—in response to the presence and participation of the local émigré population. Three case studies will illustrate this, some of which have not been explored at length in any previously-published studies: the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s September 1936 benefit concert for the American Guild for German Cultural Freedom, the Werner Janssen Symphony’s “non-performance” of Paul Hindemith’s Theme with Four Variations in January 1942, and Richard Lert’s spring 1942 performances with the Pasadena Civic Orchestra and the American Music Theatre of Pasadena. Making ample use of primary sources and archival documents throughout, this project will reveal on a small scale how émigrés fared within Los Angeles’s orchestral community of the 1930s and 40s and how these local institutions—despite differences in professionalism, audience, and funding—were shaped, reshaped, or confirmed during moments of convergence between European and American sensibilities.