Frenkel, Stefan, 1902-1979

Polish violinist and composer.

Stefan Frenkel was born in Warsaw, Poland on November 21, 1902 (or 1905; his family is unsure of the year). In Warsaw, Frenkel studied violin with his uncle, Maurice Frenkel. He then studied with Adolf Busch and Karl Flesch in Berlin at the Hochschule für Musik from 1919 to 1921. Frenkel was Concertmaster of the Dresden Philharmonic from 1924 to 1927. He was active in contemporary music, giving premieres of works by Suk and Hindemith. He was a close friend of Kurt Weill, and gave the premiere performances of Weill's Concerto for Violin, Op. 12. Other composers Frenkel knew and whose music he performed included Karol Rathaus, Alexandre Tansman, Jerzy Fitelberg and Arthur Schnabel. After the rise of the Nazis, Frenkel left for Switzerland, where he became concertmaster of L'Orchestra de la Suisse Romande in Geneva. In 1936, Frenkel moved to New York City, where he became Principal Concertmaster of the Metropolitan Opera from 1936 to 1940. He became a US citizen in 1944. Frenkel became best known for his violin arrangement of Mack the Knife and other music from Kurt Weill's Threepenny Opera. Later, he was Concertmaster at the Santa Fe and Rio de Janeiro Operas in off-seasons. From 1964 to 1968, Frenkel taught violin at Princeton University. He died in New York on March 1, 1979.

Sources:

"Stefan Frenkel, at 73; Ex-Met Concertmaster." The New York Times, March 5, 1979, B11.

"Metropolitan Opera Orchestra Principal Musicians," accessed April 4, 2011, http://www.stokowski.org/Principal_Musicians_Metropolitan_Opera.htm