Schroeder
Students
The teaching aspect of Alwin Schroeder's musical career spanned more than a half-century. He was a professor of cello, piano, and chamber music at the Leipzig Conservatory from 1881-1891, working alongside Julius Klengel. In 1905 he became a founding cello and chamber music teacher at the Institute of Musical Art (now the Juilliard School) in New York City. He published many pedagogical works for the cello, including his own left-hand exercises, editions of Dotzauer, Duport, Merk, and Piatti etudes, and the perennial 170 Foundation Studies. Schroeder's teaching methods were praisedin The Technics of Violoncello Playing (1898) by Edmund van der Straeten, author of the well-known History of the Violoncello.
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So far I have found information on about fifty Alwin Schroeder students. The two asterisked cellists are the only "maybes" in the list. Information sources are cited where possible. Additions and corrections are welcomed!
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Christine Adams, a graduate of Smith College, studied with Alwin Schroeder around 1920. Source: Smith Alumnae Quarterly, 1920.
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Peter Alt was an Alwin Schroeder student at the Leipzig Conservatory in the 1880s. In 1896 he was teaching in Dundee, Scotland. Source: The Courier and Argus (Dundee, Tayside, Scotland) Sept. 2, 1896, p. 1
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*Robert Alter was a possible Alwin Schroeder student after the turn of the twentieth century. He played in the Zoellner Quartet during World War I, and is said to have performed with Schroeder. Source: Musical America, 1919, p. 146
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*Carl Barth (b. 1869) came to the US in 1894 as a new member of the Boston Symphony, remaining in the cello section until 1937. He had studied at the Leipzig Conservatory, and it is possible that he studied with Alwin Schroeder before Schroeder's 1891 departure for the US. Barth played in the Hoffman Quartet led by Jacques Hoffman, a violinist in the BSO. The Hoffman and Kneisel Quartets sometimes joined forces in performances of the Mendelssohn Octet, and Barth also appeared with the Kneisels in the Schubert cello quintet. Sources: stokowski.org; various newspaper items, 1894-1910 (e.g., Boston Globe, Dec. 19, 1909, p. 48)
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Cecilia Bostelman Fassett likely studied with Alwin Schroeder before 1905. From that year she
was a member of the Otten Quartet (with first violinist Anna Otten). In 1930 she soloed with the Plainfield (NJ) Symphony Orchestra. Bostelman also studied with Emil Schenck, Leo Schulz, Willem Willeke, Ugo Coen, and Percy Such. Sources: Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Sept, 23, 1905, p, 9 Musical Courier, 1907; Courier-New (Bridgewater NJ), Feb, 11, 1930, p. 1
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Emil Braun (b. 1870), from Switzerland, studied with Alwin Schroeder at the Leipzig Conservatory, 1889-1891, continuing there with Julius Klengel after Schroeder's departure for the US. A teacher of cello and chamber music at the Basel Conservatory, Braun also taught in Mulhausen and Colmar. He was a regular soloist in Switzerland, and in major German cities. He also performed on the viola da gamba. Sources: Straeten History of the Violoncello, p. 577; Present-Day Cellists in Words and Images, Hamburg 1903, pp. 30-1
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Fritz Bruckner (b. 1879) was a student of Alwin Schroeder from around 1890. The Leipzig press described the young cellist as "a great talent" and greeted his 1892 Leipzig debut in the Saint-Saens Concerto in A minor with the statement that "Jean Gerardy has a rival now." Bruckner continued his Leipzig Conservatory studies with Julius Klengel until 1896. He seems to have concertized in various German cities, but after 1904, by which time he was "Dr. Fritz Bruckner," reports of his playing appear to cease. He may have been related to the cellist Oskar Bruckner. Sources:
Musikalisches Wochenblatt, vol. 22, 1891; Musical News, vol. 2, Feb. 19, 1892, p. 175; various reviews in similar publications through 1904
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Handasyd Cabot studied with Alwin Schroeder during the 1890s. He also worked with other Boston cellists such as Wulf Fries and Fritz Giese, and with Hugo Becker in Frankfurt, where he played in the Museum Orchestra. Back in Boston ca. 1907 he founded the Lekeu [Piano] Quartet with Boston Symphony members Eichheim and Glietzen. Source: Philip Hale in the Boston Herald, Feb. 13, 1908
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Louis Charbonneau (1865-1927) was an Alwin Schroeder student during the 1890s in Boston. Described as a "Montreal cello pioneer," Charbonneau played in the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, the Trio de Montreal, and the De Seve Quartet. He founded the Quebec Musicians' Association in 1917. Source: Canadian Encyclopedia
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Eleanor Leutz Diemer, a graduate of the New England Conservatory, was cello instructor at Milton Academy in the 1920s. She made her Boston recital debut at Steinert Hall in 1921, to favorable reviews. At that time she was described as a pupil of Alwin Schroeder. By her own account, marriage derailed her subsequent plans to study with Casals. Later in life she relocated from Boston to Kingston, NY, where she was principal cellist of the Hudson Valley Philharmonic. Sources: The Musician, March 1922, p. 11; Kingston Daily (NY), Dec. 27, 1969, p. 30
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Ethel Dorr McKinley Helling (1902-1989)​ studied with Alwin Schroeder most likely after 1909. Dorr was from Plymouth MA. She taught at the Devereau Schools in Philadelphia, and was later a resident of Greenwich, CT. Source: Daily Advocate (Stamford, CT), Sept. 7, 1989, p. 8
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A Dr. Drake, who taught at Wesleyan College in Macon, GA, studied with Alwin Schroeder in Boston, years unknown. Source: Macon Telegraph, March 11, 1934, p. 24
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Louise Essex Strauss (1904-1989), an Indianapolis native, won the Schubert and NFMC prizes in Minneapolis, which led to her Carnegie Hall debut with Philadelphia Orchestra on April 16, 1935. She studied with Indianapolis Symphony conductor Ferdinand Schafer, then with Alwin Schroeder before graduating from Klengel's class at the Leipzig Conservatory. She participated in the Alexanian/Casals master class at the Ecole Normale in Paris. Sources: Indianapolis Times, Jan. 11, 1935; Indianapolis Star, May 14, 1989, p. 63
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Otto Ettelt (b. 1871) studied with Alwin Schroeder at the Leipzig Conservatory in 1890-1, continuing there with Julius Klengel following Schroeder's departure for the US. He was a member of the Gewandhaus Orchestra (1896-8), then became solo cellist of the Bremen Municipal Orchestra. Later he was solo cellist and string quartet member of the Bremen Philharmonic Society. Sources: Straeten History of the Violoncello, p. 494; Present-Day Cellists in Words and Images, Hamburg 1903, pp. 64-5
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Enrico (Henry) Eduardo Fabrizio (1892-1952), studied with Alwin Schroeder around 1910-12. He also worked with Horace Britt, ca. 1907-8. From 1913-1918 he played in the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, and in the Boston Symphony Orchestra from 1918 (the same year that Schroeder rejoined it) until 1952. Source: stokowski.org
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John Alden Finckel studied with Alwin Schroeder before 1921. Other cello teachers included Hans Kindler and, at New York's Institute of Musical Art, Willem Willeke. He graduated from IMA in 1926. Source: The Baton (IMA newsletter), June 1926, p. 10
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Flori Gough, a native of San Francisco, was a student of Alwin Schroeder, years unknown. He also studied with Stanislaus Beni in San Francisco, and attended the National Conservatory in Paris. Gough was a member of the San Francisco and Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestras. In 1928 he gave a solo cello radio broadcast in the Bay Area. Source: Oakland Tribune, Aug. 5, 1928, p. 43
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Paul Hahn (1875-1962) was born in Stuttgart. He came to Toronto in 1888 and studied with Alwin Schroeder in the 1890s. Hahn was the cellist in chamber ensembles with violinist Heinrich Klingenfeld, and also played in the Hambourg Trio with famed Russian-Canadian pianist Marc Hambourg. He taught at Toronto College of Music. Source: Canadian Encyclopedia
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Frederick Hahn (ca. 1865-1942), a violinist who from 1924 until his death was the President and Director of the Philadelphia Musical Academy (founded 1870, and known for some time as the Zeckwer-Hahn Philadelphia Musical Academy), studied chamber music with Alwin Schroeder at the Leipzig Conservatory. While in Germany he also played in the Gewandhaus orchestra. After returning to the US, Hahn was a first violinist in the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the founder of the Hahn String Quartet. His violin teachers included Hans Sitt, Adolph Brodsky, and Franz Kneisel. Source: School Catalogue of the Zeckwer-Hahn Philadelphia Musical Academy, 1937-8, p. 5
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Mrs. G. H. Hopkins, the owner of a Grancino cello who lived and taught cello in Springfield, MA, was an Alwin Schroeder student, years unknown. Source: Springfield Republican, April 13, 1924, p. 36
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Annah Howe Huntting, of Springfield, MA, played on a Vuillaume cello she inherited from her father, an instrument collector. This cello is said to have been admired by her teachers, Alwin Schroeder and Heinrich Warnke (another Boston Symphony first cellist). Source: Springfield Republican, April 13, 1924, p. 36
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Otto Hutschenreuter (b. 1862) studied cello at the Leipzig Conservatory from 1880 to 1883, first with Carl Schroeder, then with Alwin Schroeder and Julius Klengel. He also studied with Louis Lubeck and Robert Hausmann. He was solo cellist of orchestras in Helsinki (1885-92) and Hamburg (1895-8). He taught briefly at the Stern Conservatory in Berlin and in 1900 returned to that city, becoming director of Schwantzer Conservatory and founding the Berlin Association for Chamber Music. Sources: Straeten History of the Violoncello, p. 481; additional dates from the Weber Edition site: Present-Day Cellists in Words and Images, Hamburg 1903, pp. 102-3
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William Noel Johnson (1863-1916) studied cello at the Royal Academy of Music in London with W. E. Whitehouse, then with Alwin Schroeder at the Leipzig Conservatory, also studying composition there with Oscar Paul and Paul Klengel. A London-based soloist, composer and teacher from 1893, he toured the English provinces as a solo cellist and wrote the music for the play The Tournament of Love, produced in Paris. He composed successful pieces for cello, and his songs were especially popular. Johnson was later Musical director at the Criterion Theatre. Sources: Straeten History of the Violoncello, pp. 509-510; Brown and Stratton, British Musical Biography, 1897, p. 222
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Max Kiesling (1866-1930) is said by some sources to have studied with both Alwin Schroeder and Julius Klengel at the Leipzig Conservatory. However, if 1882-1885 are the correct years of his conservatory course, the fact that he is identified as Schroeder's student in the spring of 1884, when he performed a Davidoff concerto in Leipzig, suggests that Schroeder was his principal, if not only, cello teacher there. Kiesling joined the Leipzig Gewandhaus orchestra in 1892 and in 1899 succeeded Schroeder's successor Wille as solo Gewandhaus cellist. He was the main teacher of Hans Kronold, an early cello recording artist who came to the US at about the same time as Schroeder. Sources: Bartholf Senff, Signale für die musikalische Welt 1884, pp. 189-190; Max Kiesling
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Russell Barclay Kingman (1882- 1959) was born in New Jersey, and studied with Emil Schenk, Alwin Schroeder, and Leo Schulz. He toured the West in 1909, and after stints with the Mozart Quartet of New York and the Schumann Quartet of Boston, he became the cellist of the Kasner Quartet. Source: International Who's Who in Music, 1918, p. 327
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The Iowa-born musician Ernest Lachmund (1865-1954) went to the Cologne Conservatory in 1880 to learn the cello, studying with Robert Hausmann in Berlin. From 1884 he was a solo cellist based in Minneapolis. In 1887 he returned to Europe, continuing his musical studies at the Leipzig Conservatory with Jadassohn (composition and counterpoint) and Alwin Schroeder (cello). In the 1890s he founded a music school in Duluth, where he remained until his death. Among his compositions is a Waltz-Serenade for Anton Hekking, whom Lachmund also counted among his teachers. Lachmund's brother Carl was a New York-based pianist who had studied with Liszt. Sources: Mathews, A Hundred Years of Music in America, 1889, p. 709; Obituary in unidentified MN paper, Feb. 11, 1954, courtesy of the Duluth Public Library
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Emil Leichsenring (b. 1867) studied with Alwin Schroeder and Julius Klengel at the Leipzig Conservatory. He played in the Meiningen Court Orchestra, the Bulow Orchestra, and the Bayreuth Festival Orchestra, and toured northern and central Europe with the Meiningen court string quartet. Later he was a cello soloist and teacher in Hamburg. Source: Straeten History of the Violoncello, p. 489
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Ernest Lent (1856-1922) was born in Brandenburg, Germany, and studied with both Alwin Schroeder and Julius Klengel at the Leipzig Conservatory. After a stint as a professor at Koningsberg Conservatory and a concert tour of Scandinavia, Lent came to the US as a member of the Metropolitan Opera orchestra. From the mid-1890s he was the conductor of the Ladies' String Orchestra of Washington, DC. He was also a composer of chamber and orchestral works, such as the Suite Erotique for strings with horn and harp obligato, performed by the San Francisco Symphony in 1898. Sources: San Francisco Call, March 3, 1898, p. 6; Ernest Lent
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Wyman Miller was described in 1913 as a promising local cellist in Fitchburg, MA. His studies with Alwin Schroeder likely began at some point after Schroeder's final return to the US in 1908. "Mr. Miller has advanced rapidly in both technique and musicianship during the past year or two, enjoying the advantages of a period of study abroad and the tutelage of Alwin Schroeder ...one of the best 'cellists and teachers in the country." Source: "Cello Recital" in Fitchburg Sentinel, April 18, 1913, p. 1
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Marion Moorhouse Henry was a Longy School of Music faculty member in the 1920s. She studied with Alwin Schroeder before marrying and moving to New York state. She was a Westchester Chamber Music Society charter member (from 1931) and soloist with the New Rochelle Symphony Orchestra. Sources: Musical Courier, 1922; Scarsdale Inquirer, 1939
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Fritz Philipp (b. 1868) studied with Alwin Schroeder and Julius Klengel at the Leipzig Conservatory. He toured Russia and Switzerland, and was solo cellist of several orchestras, including the orchestra of the Mannheim Court Theatre (from 1909). Source: Straeten History of the Violoncello, p. 491
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The Swiss cellist Adolphe Rehberg (1868-1935) studied with Alwin Schroeder at the Leipzig Conservatory, 1884-7. He toured as a soloist and taught at the Lausanne Conservatory in 1888, then joined the Geneva Conservatory faculty in 1889. A member of the Marteau Quartet from 1900 until 1905, Rehberg joined the Berlin Quartet when Marteau succeeded Joachim at the Berlin Hochschule. His brother was pianist Willy Rehberg, Schroeder's frequent chamber music partner in Germany during the 1880s, and again in 1907-8. Sources: Straeten History of the Violoncello, p. 576; Present-Day Cellists in Words and Images, Hamburg 1903, p 148-9
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Edythe Relly Rowe (ca. 1895-1967) studied with Schroeder after 1907. According to The Washington Times (Washington, DC, April 10, 1919, p. 11), “Mrs. Rowe brings to her art the influence of her celebrated instructors, having studied under Alwin Schroeder; in fact she lived in the house with him for an entire year, during her studies under him." She also studied with Elsa Ruegger, and was a 1914 graduate of the Brussels conservatory, where she worked with Edouard Jacobs. Her cello was an Alessandro Gagliano from 1722, and her favorite bow was one given to her by Alwin Schroeder, who had used it at his first public appearance. From 1928 to 1940 Rowe was the principal cellist of the San Diego Philharmonic. Sources: The Washington Times (Washington, DC, April 10, 1919, p. 11); Sacramento Bee, Feb. 8, 1967
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Wallingford Riegger (1885-1961), who went on to become a respected American composer, studied with Alwin Schroeder from 1905 to 1907 at the newly-founded Institute of Musical Art in New York. Schroeder himself performed the piano accompaniments to Riegger's concerto performances at the Institute. Source: Archives of the Juilliard School, 2019
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Lieff Rosanoff (1891- ), one of late Boston Symphony principal cellist Jules Eskin's teachers, was another of Alwin Schroeder's cello students at the Institute of Musical Art. Rosanoff later became an important disciple of Pablo Casals and taught at the Settlement Music School and the Mannes College of Music. His wife, Marie Roemaret-Rosanoff, was also a fine cellist; together they prepared a 1963 edition of the Bach cello suites in the Casals tradition. Sources: David Mannes, Music Is My Faith; Archives of the Juilliard School, 2020
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Robert Haven Schauffler (1879-1964), who would later become a prolific writer, often on musical subjects, worked with Alwin Schroeder during his years as an undergraduate at Princeton University, 1899-1902. He refers directly to Schroeder in recalling an incident from his "callow youth," when Schroeder crushed Schauffler's dream of performing the Schubert cello quintet alongside his teacher in a Kneisel Quartet concert. (See Schroeder Anecdotes page) Schauffler credited Schroder for encouraging him to become a writer; in a 1955 letter, he remembers Schroeder's advice: "As a cellist you would spend your life playing into the air the music of others. 'And the wind passeth over it,' etc. (He quoted the Bible verse.) But as a writer you might create something yourself that would live after you are gone." Schroeder's cordial reply to Schauffler's New Year's greetings in 1928 is perhaps the last preserved correspondence from Schroeder. Sources: Schauffler, Franz Schubert: The Ariel of Music; letter quoted in Danek dissertation on the Kneisel Quartet, p. 197; archival materials in the Schauffler collection at the University of Texas at Austin, 2018
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Walter Schilling (b. 1873), studied with Alwin Schroeder and Julius Klengel at the Leipzig Conservatory, 1890-6. He was solo cellist of the Lubeck Society of Friends of Music (1897-9), then joined the Karlsruhe court orchestra and conservatory. He was named Royal Chamber Virtuoso in 1903, when he became solo cellist of the Dresden Opera and a member of the Lewinger quartet.​Sources: Straeten History of the Violoncello, p. 497; Present-Day Cellists in Words and Images, Hamburg 1903, pp. 162-3
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Hugo Schlemueller (1872-1918) was born in Konigsburg. He studied with Alwin Schroeder and Julius Klengel in Leipzig (1882-1891), and with Hugo Becker in Frankfurt (from 1898). In the 1890s he taught at the Conservatory in Gotha, where he likely worked alongside Luise Wandersleb-Patzig and may have studied with her. From 1902 to 1917 Schlemueller taught at the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt, where Alwin Schroeder also taught briefly (1907-8). A composer of cello music ranging from less-taxing miniatures to virtuoso concertos, his etudes have been reissued in My First Schroeder (Amy Rosen) together with similar studies by Schroeder's older cellist brother, Carl. Several of his pieces for the developing cellist are included in recent solo collections such as Repertoire Classics for Cello (Mary Ann Ramos) and Solos for Young Cellists (Carey Cheney). Etuden-Schule, Schlemueller's two-volume compilation of etudes by various earlier cellists, comprises 91 progressively-ordered studies. Sources: Present-Day Cellists in Words and Images, Hamburg 1903, pp. 164-5; Hugo Schlemüller; Etuden-Schule
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Attilio di Scip[p]io, who played in the People's Symphony Orchestra in Boston and was taking part in concerts around Massachusetts in the early 1920s, is said to have "trained under Alwin Schroeder." (Fall River Globe (MA), April 6, 1923, p. 13) Added 8/28/21
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Born in Chicago, Henry Boardman Spalding (1885-1971) was the Vice President of the Spalding sporting goods company founded by his father, and a graduate of Yale University and Harvard Law School. Per a 1926 profile, “Mr. Spalding’s mother was a skilled musician. From her he inherited an interest in music and he took up the study of the ’cello for his own amusement. At Yale he played in the college orchestra and from time to time he gave informal recitals with his mother, an excellent pianist, and his brother, Albert Spalding, one of the most noted violinists in the United States today. Alwin Schroeder, first cellist of the Boston Symphony, was his tutor for several years. …Golf and music are his particular hobbies at the present time.” Source: Bronxville Press (New York), Feb. 12 1926 (“Who’s Who in Bronxville”)
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Mrs. Theodorowicz, wife of Kneisel Quartet second violinist Julius Theodorowicz, is mentioned as a student of Alwin Schroeder in Danek's dissertation on the Kneisel Quartet.
Alice Totten, who studied cello with three Boston Symphony principal cellists (Alwin Schroeder, Joseph Malkin, and, for ten years, Jean Bedetti), was on the cello faculty of the Walnut Hill School. Among her students was former Los Angeles Philharmonic principal cellist Ronald Leonard. Source: Spaeth, Music and Dance in the New England States, 1953, p. 292
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Dr. Waldo of Bridgeport, CT, was studying with Alwin Schroeder in 1895, when he participated in the state music teachers' convention in New Haven. He performed a Schubert string quartet with his son, daughter, and another "Bridgeport man," Richard Fuessel. Source: Morning Journal and Courier (New Haven, CT), May 22, 1895, p. 7) added 7/6/22
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Beth Walton Nelson studied at the New England Conservatory and with Boston Symphony principal cellists Alwin Schroeder and Joseph Malkin. In the fall of 1928 she joined the faculty of the McCune Music School faculty in Salt Lake City. Source: Salt Lake Tribune, June 26, 1928, p. 62
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Margaret Walmsley “studied for several years with Alwin Schroeder" per theTampa Bay Times (St. Petersburg, FL), April 8, 1934, p. 42, in a review of her St. Petersburg performance of the Chopin cello sonata with Mrs. Charles Harrison, a Peabody Institute piano graduate.
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Arriving in Leipzig from her native Australia in about 1889, Matilda C. Washburn Freund studied cello with Alwin Schroeder first as a private student, then, in her own words, as a “fully fledged member of the Conservatorium.” It was Schroeder who introduced her to another Australian Conservatory student, pianist Ethel (Ettie) Florence, who would later earn fame as the novelist Henry Handel Richardson (1870-1946). Washburn Freund remembers attending the Hauptprobe (dress rehearsal) for the weekly concerts at the Gewandhaus: “And what an audience that was! The falling of a pin on the floor would have been like a thunderclap, so tense were the silence and attention. Then, when the doors were flung open and the audience came pouring out, the chattering voices giving forth lusty opinions on the programmes and players would have made the Tower of Babel a mere echo.” She later studied with Bennat in Munich, where Ettie’s sister Lil was studying violin. Source: HHR: Some Personal Recollections, pp. 3-4
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Eduard Wellenkamp (b. 1868) studied first with Carl Schroeder at the Sondershausen Conservatory (1884-7), then with Alwin Schroeder in Leipzig, 1887-8. A member of the Bulow, Fiedler, and Hamburg Philharmonic Orchestras, he served for eight years as cellist of the Koperzky Quartet, and for two with Professor Barth’s quartet in Hamburg. He composed a sonata for cello and piano, and was also an organist. Source: Straeten History of the Violoncello, p. 491
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Robert Williamson, from Rockford, IL, was a student of Alwin Schroeder while pursuing a degree at MIT. According to his son, Williamson was always welcome at the Schroeder home in Jamaica Plain, where he was treated "like family." This is borne out by the fact that when Schroeder passed away, Schroeder's elder daughter Hedwig gave Williamson part of her father's collection of sheet music, including an early copy of the solo part to Dvorak's Cello Concerto, proofs of the 170 Foundation Studies, and Schroeder's edition of the Bach cello suites. Sources: Morning Star (Rockford, IL) Sept. 7, 1923, p. 10; Communications with Bob Williamson, Jr., also a cellist
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Sue Winchell Burnett was from Brunswick, ME, where she was living in 1928. She was a cellist in the Bostonia Orchestra who had studied with Alwin Schroeder. Source: Edwards, Music and Musicians of Maine, 1928, p. 369-370
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Helen F. Winn was a cellist in the Fadettes, a Boston-based all-female orchestra. She studied with Alwin Schroeder before 1903. Source: Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, March 15, 1903
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Karl Zeise (1901-1992), from Jamaica Plain, MA, was a Boston Symphony cellist from 1938 to 1970. He seems to have studied with Schroeder around 1910-12. Before joining the BSO, Zeise played in the Philadelphia Orchestra for eight seasons and studied with Hugo Becker in Berlin. In Philadelphia he had the distinction of playing the new Theremin electric cello that Stokowski had briefly added to the orchestra to augment the lower string sound. During World War II he was the cellist in the first US performance of the Shostakovich Piano Quintet. Sources: 1991 Interview with Karl Zeise