Young, Victor, 1889-1968

Victor Young, pianist, composer, and conductor, was born in Bristol, Tennessee on April 9, 1889. He attended the Cincinnati School of Music and New York University. He debuted as a pianist with the Russian Symphony Orchestra, and toured Europe and the United States as a pianist, arranger and conductor. From 1919 to 1927 Young was associated with the Thomas Edison Laboratory in Orange, New Jersey, where he worked as Edison's personal pianist and musical director. In the late 1920s Young worked in California in the film industry and wrote the score for an early sound movie, In Old California. Young composed orchestral works as well as numerous songs, particularly in the mountaineer idiom. Later in his career Young directed radio programs and served as director of music at the Miami Military Institute and Sweetbriar College. Young was married to soprano Helen Davis, who was an Edison recording artist. He died in Ossining, New York on September 2, 1968.

From the description of Papers, 1927-1962. (Manhattanville College Library). WorldCat record id: 61480058

Individual excerpts from the ballet were performed on NBC Symphony radio broadcasts and in concert, ca. 1940-1942 by the All-American Youth Orchestra, Leopold Stokowski conductor.--Cf. Fleisher Collection.

From the description of Charm assembly line : a ballet / by Victor Young. c1954. (Franklin & Marshall College). WorldCat record id: 57559452

The Victor Young (1889-1968) represented by this collection is not to be confused with Victor Young (1900-1956), band leader of numerous recordings from the 1930s and Hollywood film compsoser, most notably of Around the World in Eighty Days .

Albert Victor Young (he dropped his first name by the time he was twenty) was born in Bristol, Tennessee, on April 9, 1889. His initial musical education took place in Knoxville, TN. He attended the Cincinnati College of Music where he studied with Romeo Gorno, Carl Kohlmann, and Herman Bellstedt. Continuing his studies at New York University, his teachers included Frederick Schleider and composition teachers Adolf Schmid and Mortimer Wilson. Young also spent time in Paris, where he studied with Louis Victor Saar, Paul Le Flem (the latter of the Schola Cantorum of Paris), and piano with Isidor Philipp.

Young made his debut as pianist with the Russian Symphony, and toured toured the United States, Canada and Europe. At various times in the outset of his career he was director of music at Miami Military Institute in Germantown, Ohio, assistant conductor of the South Musical Festivals at the University of Tennesse. He also taught at Sweetwater College in Sweetwater Tennesse and at Henderson-Brown College in Arkadelphia, Arkansas.

From 1919-1927, Young was a pianist and musical director for Thomas A. Edison. He functioned as a talent scout for Edison, making trips to Europe (Germany in particular) to seek out perfomers who could be potential Edison recording artists. He also made several solo piano recordings for the Edison company.

It was during this period that Young came into contact with another Edison recording artist, soprano Helen Davis (later she was billed as a mezzo-soprano). Apparently from New York City, Davis performed recitals locally, and made appearances with the Kneisel Quartet. Young and Davis put together a program of eighteenth century works which they would perform in contemporaneous costume. Victor Young married Helen Davis during this period.

Young is reputed to have written scores for many films at the outset of the sound period in motion pictures, including In Old California (1929). A still from one of his scrapbooks indicates that, for an opera sequence within a silent film directed by Fred Niblo, he played the role of Scarpia in Tosca (the title of this film has not been determined). He appeared in the film Musical Justice, along with Rudy Vallee and Mae Questal, where he plays a judicial bandleader (the script for this short is part of the collection).

Much of Young's later career was spent being a song promoter for the publishing firms of Oliver Ditson, John Church, and Theodore Presser, operating out of an office in the Steinway Building near Carnegie Hall. He appeared to have done some composing on the side, and his songs were sung by leading opera singers of the day.

Victor Young died in Ossining, New York, on September 2, 1968.

From the guide to the Victor Young papers, ca. 1918-ca. 1951, (The New York Public Library. Music Division.)