Mannes, David

David Mannes ( born David Mannes ; February 16, 1866 - April 25, 1959 ) is an American violinist , conductor and music teacher.

Coming from a very poor family of Polish emigrants, Mannes did not receive a systematic music education. Having learned self-taught, he played on skating rinks, on the street, in wax museums. Free lessons for the teenager Mannes were given by the black violinist John Douglas, who studied at the Paris Conservatory, but did not have the opportunity to perform in the United States because of his race. Then, however, Mannes managed to go to study in Berlin, where he studied with Heinrich de Ana and Karl Halir .

According to legend, in 1891, Mannes, who played intermission in the lobby of one of the New York theaters, was heard by the chief conductor of the New York Symphony Orchestra, Walter Damrosh , who invited him to his orchestra. In 1898 - 1912, Mannes was the accompanist of the orchestra; in 1898 , he married Damrosh’s younger sister, pianist and singer Clara Damrosh.

Mannes and his wife made a great contribution to organizing music education in New York. In 1900, Mannes became director of the New York School of Music. Unable to, due to public opinion, accept black students into it, he founded in 1912 a special music school for black people in Harlem, New York's Negro quarter. Finally, in 1916, together with his wife, Mannes founded the Mannes School of Music in New York , a small private conservatory that later developed into Mannes College .

In 1938, David Mannes published an autobiographical book, Music is My Faith .