Bernard Krainis (1924-2000) was an American musician and co-founder of
New York Pro Musica
New York Pro Musica was a vocal and instrumental ensemble based in New York City, which specialized in Medieval and Renaissance music. It was co-founded in 1952, under the name Pro Musica Antiqua, by Noah Greenberg, a choral director, and Bernard ...
. He played
recorder Recorder or The Recorder may refer to:
Newspapers
* ''Indianapolis Recorder'', a weekly newspaper
* ''The Recorder'' (Massachusetts newspaper), a daily newspaper published in Greenfield, Massachusetts, US
* ''The Recorder'' (Port Pirie), a newsp ...
and studied with
Erich Katz
Erich Katz (July 31, 1900 – July 30, 1973) was a German-born musicologist, composer, music critic, musician and professor. He fled the Nazis in 1939, arriving first in England, emigrating to the United States in 1943, where he became a citizen. H ...
.
He was a founding member of the
New York Pro Musica Antiqua and the Aston Magna Foundation for Music, two pioneering ensembles for the performance of early music on period instruments. He died at age 75 on August 18, 2000, at his home in Great Barrington, Massachusetts.
According to his family, the cause of death was cancer.
Early years
Krainis was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey, on December 28, 1924, the son of Abraham and Rose Sachs Krainis. During World War II he served in the Army, stationed in India with the Seventh Bomber Group. He attended
Denver University
The University of Denver (DU) is a private university, private research university in Denver, Colorado, United States. Founded in 1864, it has an enrollment of approximately 5,700 undergraduate students and 7,200 graduate students. It is Carne ...
. But it was his studies at
New York University
New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...
, where he was a student of the medieval and Renaissance music scholar
Gustave Reese
Gustave Reese ( ; November 29, 1899 – September 7, 1977) was an American musicologist and teacher. Reese is known mainly for his work on medieval and Renaissance music, particularly with his two publications ''Music in the Middle Ages'' (1940 ...
, that determined the future course of his life.
Music career
In 1952, along with the conductor and musicologist Noah Greenberg, Krainis formed the New York Pro Musica Antiqua,
which brought wider public attention to early music and was in the forefront of the period-instrument movement. Krainis performed with the group until 1959. In the 1960s he organized and toured with his own ensembles: the Krainis Baroque Trio, the Krainis Baroque Ensemble and the Krainis Consort, becoming one of the few recorder players at the time to have a prominent solo career. He also acted as first president of the
New York Recorder Guild.
In the early 1970s he was a founding member of Aston Magna, which is still a force in the revival of early music, presenting concerts and sponsoring an important summer music festival at its headquarters in Great Barrington, where Krainis moved in 1969.
In 1985, at 60, he retired as a performer. But he remained active as a board member and teacher at Aston Magna. He also taught at
Kirkland College
Kirkland College was a small, private liberal arts women's college located in Clinton, New York, from 1965 to 1978. It was a female counterpart to Hamilton College, at that time all male, and its campus was adjacent to Hamilton's. It was named ...
,
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...
, the
Eastman School of Music
The Eastman School of Music is the music school of the University of Rochester, a private research university in Rochester, New York, United States. Established in 1921 by celebrated industrialist and philanthropist George Eastman, it was the ...
and
Smith College
Smith College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts Women's colleges in the United States, women's college in Northampton, Massachusetts, United States. It was chartered in 1871 by Sophia Smit ...
.
Krainis is survived by his wife, Betty; a son, John, of Freeport, Maine; a stepson, David H. Lippman of Great Barrington; two stepdaughters, Deborah Morris of Great Barrington and Judith Grant of Chapel Hill, North Carolina; a sister, Esther James of Freeland, Washington; and nine grandchildren.
[Tommasini, Anthony, "Bernard Krainis, 75, Champion of Early Music", ''New York Times'', August 30, 200]
/ref>
Though he was a specialist in early music, Krainis had wide-ranging musical interests. His friend Andrew L. Pincus, the music critic of ''The Berkshire Eagle'', recalled in a recent tribute that Krainis could frequently be seen at the yearly Tanglewood Festival of Contemporary Music in Lenox, Massachusetts, and that his assessments of new works were insightful. "He had perfect pitch for both quality and cant," Mr. Pincus wrote, "and could be merciless in his judgments of fakery."
See also
* New York Recorder Guild
External links
Krainis Collection of Early Music Scores
in Print and Digital Collections at Bard College at Simon's Rock
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Krainis, Bernard
American recorder players
1924 births
2000 deaths
20th-century American male musicians
20th-century American flautists