Paul Fromm (September 28, 1906 – July 4, 1987) was a Jewish

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

wine merchant and performing arts patron through the Fromm Music Foundation. The ''Organum for Paul Fromm'' was composed by

John Harbison John Harris Harbison (born December 20, 1938) is an American composer, known for his symphonies, operas, and large choral works. Life John Harris Harbison was born on December 20, 1938, in Orange, New Jersey, to the historian Elmore Harris Harb ...

in his honor.

Early life

Born in

Kitzingen Kitzingen () is a town in the German state of Bavaria, capital of the district Kitzingen. It is part of the Franconia geographical region and has around 21,000 inhabitants. Surrounded by vineyards, Kitzingen County is the largest wine producer i ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG),, is a country in Central Europe. It is the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany lies between the Baltic and North Sea to the north and the Alps to the sou ...

to a prominent family of

vintner A winemaker or vintner is a person engaged in winemaking. They are generally employed by wineries or wine companies, where their work includes: *Cooperating with viticulturists *Monitoring the maturity of grapes to ensure their quality and to d ...

s, Fromm was an early supporter of contemporary classical music in that country after he was exposed to

Stravinsky Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (6 April 1971) was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor, later of French (from 1934) and American (from 1945) citizenship. He is widely considered one of the most important and influential composers of the ...

's '' Rite of Spring'' in the early 1920s. He attended concerts at the

Donaueschingen Festival The Donaueschingen Festival (german: Donaueschinger Musiktage, links=no) is a festival for new music that takes place every October in the small town of Donaueschingen in south-western Germany. Founded in 1921, it is considered the oldest festiva ...

further deepening his appreciation of the genre.
A Jew, he was forced to flee

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

in 1938 and immigrated to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

where he settled in Chicago where he co-founded a wine importing firm, the Geeting and Fromm Corporation in 1939 and then founded the Great Lakes Wine Company in 1943.

Patronage

By 1952, his business was sufficiently well established to allow him to focus on establishing the Fromm Music Foundation, which financially supporting young composers through grants awarded on the recommendation of its staff of musicians and experts. Fromm's protégés include

Benjamin Lees Benjamin Lees (January 8, 1924 – May 31, 2010) was an American composer of classical music. Early life Lees was born Benjamin George Lisniansky in Harbin, Manchuria, of Russian- Jewish descent. Lees was still an infant when his family emigr ...

, Ben Weber and

Elvin Epstein Elvin may refer to: * Elvin (given name) * Elvin (surname) * Elvin (service), a distributed event routing service * ''Elvin!'', a 1968 album by Elvin Jones See also

* * * Alvin (disambiguation) * Elfin (disambiguation) * Elvan (disambiguati ...

. A "Paul Fromm Concert" of

contemporary classical music Contemporary classical music is classical music composed close to the present day. At the beginning of the 21st century, it commonly referred to the post-1945 modern forms of post-tonal music after the death of Anton Webern, and included se ...

is performed annually at the University of Chicago in his memory. The Paul Fromm Award is given annually by the

Tanglewood Music Center The Tanglewood Music Center is an annual summer music academy in Lenox, Massachusetts, United States, in which emerging professional musicians participate in performances, master classes and workshops. The center operates as a part of the Tanglewo ...

in his name. During the period 1984-89,

Earle Brown Earle Brown (December 26, 1926 – July 2, 2002) was an American composer who established his own formal and notational systems. Brown was the creator of "open form," a style of musical construction that has influenced many composers since� ...

, then president of the Fromm Music Foundation, recommended many American composers for commissions including Daniel Asia, David Lang, William Susman,

Henry Brant Henry Dreyfuss Brant (September 15, 1913 – April 26, 2008) was a Canadian-born American composer. An expert orchestrator with a flair for experimentation, many of Brant's works featured spatialization techniques. Biography Brant was born i ...

and

Steve Reich Stephen Michael Reich ( ; born October 3, 1936) is an American composer known for his contribution to the development of minimal music in the mid to late 1960s. Reich's work is marked by its use of repetitive figures, slow harmonic rhythm, ...

. Paul Fromm was married to

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...

psychology professor and writer Erika Fromm whom he met in Germany in 1936 and married in 1938 shortly before

emigrating Emigration is the act of leaving a resident country or place of residence with the intent to settle elsewhere (to permanently leave a country). Conversely, immigration describes the movement of people into one country from another (to permanentl ...

to the United States. Fromm's 1966 article "A Contemporary Role for American Music Libraries" inspired the major compendium of Boston-area composers and compositions called the Boston Composers Project.

References

Rescuer of Necktie Salesmen
''

Time Magazine ''Time'' (stylized in all caps) is an American news magazine based in New York City. For nearly a century, it was published weekly, but starting in March 2020 it transitioned to every other week. It was first published in New York City on M ...

'', July 23, 1956
Paul Fromm, Classical-music Patron, is Dead
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'',

John Rockwell John Sargent Rockwell (born September 16, 1940) is an American music critic, dance critic and arts administrator. According to ''Grove Music Online'', "Rockwell brings two signal attributes to his critical work: a genuine admiration for all k ...

, July 6, 1987

External links

Fromm Music Foundation
Bruce Duffie, April 9, 1986 1906 births 1987 deaths People from Kitzingen 20th-century American businesspeople American people of German-Jewish descent Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to the United States 20th-century classical music 20th-century American philanthropists {{Illinois-bio-stub