Walter Damrosch

Walter Damrosch was born on Jan 30, 1862 in Poland]. Walter Damrosch's big-screen debut came with The Star Maker directed by Roy Del Ruth in 1939, strarring Walter Damrosch.

Legendary conductor, composer, author, producer, pianist and educator who arrived in the USA in 1871. He was educated in New York public schools and studied music with his father Leopold Damrosch, Rischbeiter, Urspruch, and Von Bulow. He was awarded honorary degrees from New York University, Princeton University, Columbia University, the University of Pennsylvania, Brown University, New York State University, and Washington & Jefferson College. He was accompanist to August Wilhelmj on his US tour, and permanent conductor of the Newark Harmonic Society. Succeeding his father as Wagnerian director for the Metropolitan Opera (1885-1891), he also conducted the New York Symphony and the Oratorio Society of New York, and produced a series of Wagner operas at Carnegie Hall in 1893-1894. In 1895 he organized the damrosch Grand opera Company, became staff conductor of the Metropolitan Opera in 1900, and reorganized the New York Symphony in 1903, which he continued to direct until 1927. During that year, he became a music counsel for NBC, and conducted a series of broadcasts. Also in 1927 (until 1929) he became president of the National Institute of Arts and Letters, and from 1940-1948 he was president of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. During World War II, he founded a school for bandmasters at Fontainebleau, France.