American collaborations

In the United States, Kauder was able to renew his friendships with Siegmund Levarie, a former student who had emigrated to the United States in 1938, and Willem Valkenier, the horn player he had met in the Wiener Tonkünstler Orchester. Levarie, who had become a music professor at the University of Chicago, planned a performance of Kauder’s work with the university students orchestra, when his wartime service with the US Army prevented him from conducting the performance; but Frederick Stock, then conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, stepped in. After Levarie’s return to the university, he regularly included Kauder’s music in the performance program of the Collegium Musicum.

Meanwhile, Valkenier had been a member of the Boston Symphony Orchestra since 1924. He introduced Kauder to his orchestra colleagues and friends in Boston, promoting many performances of Kauder’s chamber music. Inspired by the caliber of Valkenier and oboist Louis Speyer, Kauder composed new works with them in mind. Valkeneier’s students at the New England Conservatory and Tanglewood, in turn, learned and continue to teach the Kauder repertory.

In New York, Kauder befriended Herman de Grab (d. 1949), a writer, pianist, and collector of old instruments from Prague. De Grab established a private music school in New York, The Music House, where he and his wife taught piano. He invited Kauder to teach music theory and composition and to conduct a chorus of students and friends. One of these students, Lillian Kallir, became a world-renowned pianist.

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