The Schubert Club, established in 1882, is a non-profit arts organization in

Saint Paul, Minnesota Saint Paul (often abbreviated St. Paul) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Minnesota and the county seat of Ramsey County, Minnesota, Ramsey County. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, ...

, United States, that promotes the art of music, particularly recital music. The Club presents eight concert series annually at various venues, runs an annual

scholarship A scholarship is a form of Student financial aid, financial aid awarded to students for further education. Generally, scholarships are awarded based on a set of criteria such as academic merit, Multiculturalism, diversity and inclusion, athleti ...

competition for music students, provides after-school music lessons, presents master classes, commissions new musical works by

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

s, and produces recordings and books. The Museum and the administrative offices are located in the historic Landmark Center in downtown Saint Paul.

History

The Schubert Club began in 1882 as the Ladies Musicale. Its founders created the organization to support recital music and host touring artists in the city. The club played a role in the musical life of St. Paul, presenting events that included appearances by artists such as Josef Hoffman and

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. The Schubert Club also supported musicians, including Emil Oberhoffer, who became the first conductor of the Minneapolis Symphony after being assisted by the club in the early 1890s. Over time, the Schubert Club became one of the oldest arts organizations in Minnesota.

Activities

The Schubert Club presents concerts and educational programs. Its International Artist Series brings recital soloists and ensembles to the

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, featuring artists such as

Jascha Heifetz Jascha Heifetz (; December 10, 1987) was a Russian-American violinist, widely regarded as one of the greatest violinists of all time. Born in Vilnius, he was soon recognized as a child prodigy and was trained in the Russian classical violin styl ...

Arthur Rubinstein Arthur Rubinstein Order of the British Empire, KBE OMRI (; 28 January 1887 – 20 December 1982) was a Polish Americans, Polish-American pianist.

Yo-Yo Ma Yo-Yo Ma (born October 7, 1955) is a French-born American Cello, cellist. Born to Chinese people, Chinese parents in Paris, he was regarded as a child prodigy there and began to study the cello with his father at age four. At the age of seven, ...

, and

Renée Fleming Renée Lynn Fleming (born February 14, 1959) is an American soprano and actress, known for performances in opera, concerts, recordings, theater, film, and at major public occasions. A recipient of the National Medal of Arts, Fleming has been nom ...

. The Music in the Park Series, which joined the Schubert Club in 2010, presents chamber ensembles in the Saint Anthony Park neighborhood. Schubert Club Mix offers performances in nontraditional venues. The Accordo series features a string collective of musicians from local orchestras. The Courtroom Concert series showcases Minnesota-based artists and composers at the Landmark Center.

Bruce P. Carlson Student Scholarship Competition

The Schubert Club awards the Bruce P. Carlson Student Scholarship Competition annually each spring. This competition grants over $70,000 in scholarships to young musicians for further musical education. It began in 1922 and has expanded to include about fifteen categories, covering a wide range of instruments and voice. The competition is open to residents or students enrolled in institutions within Minnesota, Wisconsin, South Dakota, North Dakota, or Iowa.

Schubert Club Music Museum

Schubert Club Museum of Musical Instruments

The Schubert Club Music Museum is located on the second floor of the Landmark Center in downtown St. Paul. Started in 1980, the museum underwent a redesign in 2021. Its galleries include the Music Makers Zone, where visitors can play instruments from around the world, and the Keyboard Journey Gallery, which focuses on the club’s keyboard collection. The museum displays historical keyboards, composer letters, and music players. Visitors may interact with instruments, view manuscripts, and learn about the evolution of keyboard instruments. The museum offers free admission and guided tours.

Kugler Collection of Musical Instruments

The Kugler Collection of Musical Instruments, which includes

brass instruments A brass instrument is a musical instrument that produces sound by sympathetic vibration of air in a tubular resonator in sympathy with the vibration of the player's lips. The term ''labrosone'', from Latin elements meaning "lip" and "sound", ...

strings String or strings may refer to: *String (structure), a long flexible structure made from threads twisted together, which is used to tie, bind, or hang other objects Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Strings'' (1991 film), a Canadian anim ...

winds Wind is the natural movement of atmosphere of Earth, air or other gases relative to a planetary surface, planet's surface. Winds occur on a range of scales, from thunderstorm flows lasting tens of minutes, to local breezes generated by heatin ...

, and

percussion instruments A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Ex ...

from around the world,

music box A music box (American English) or musical box (British English) is an automatic musical instrument in a box that produces Musical note, musical notes by using a set of pins placed on a revolving cylinder (geometry), cylinder or disc to pluck ...

es, early

phonograph A phonograph, later called a gramophone, and since the 1940s a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogue reproduction of sound. The sound vibration Waveform, waveforms are recorded as correspond ...

s, and home-made instruments from 20th-century America. Originally part of the Kugler Musical Museum, the collection was established by William Kugler, a notable bandleader and musical instrument collector from Saint Paul. The museum's foundation is rooted in Kugler's extensive accumulation of musical artifacts over many decades, showcasing a wide variety of instruments, early phonographs, music boxes, and unique homemade creations."Northern Lights: History on Parade." The AMICA, Automatic Musical Instrument Collectors' Association, vol. 20, no. 2, Mar. 1983, pp. 45-47, https://stacks.stanford.edu/file/druid:td420kt6864/20-02.pdf The collection was housed in Kugler's home, where he built an addition to store his artifacts, and was known for its eclectic and comprehensive array of musical objects. In 1989 the Schubert Clubtook responsibility for Kugler's collection, integrating it into their broader mission to promote music and musical education. The collection became part of the Schubert Club Museum of Musical Instruments, located in the Landmark Center in Saint Paul. Other collections include: * Historic

keyboard instruments A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument played using a keyboard, a row of levers that are pressed by the fingers. The most common of these are the piano, organ, and various electronic keyboards, including synthesizers and digital pianos ...

, such as

clavichord The clavichord is a stringed rectangular keyboard instrument that was used largely in the Late Middle Ages, through the Renaissance music, Renaissance, Baroque music, Baroque and Classical period (music), Classical eras. Historically, it was most ...

harpsichord A harpsichord is a musical instrument played by means of a musical keyboard, keyboard. Depressing a key raises its back end within the instrument, which in turn raises a mechanism with a small plectrum made from quill or plastic that plucks one ...

organs In a multicellular organism, an organ is a collection of tissues joined in a structural unit to serve a common function. In the hierarchy of life, an organ lies between tissue and an organ system. Tissues are formed from same type cells to a ...

and

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

s * The Gilman Ordway Manuscript Collection, which includes letters and manuscripts from composers and other important figures in

music history Music history, sometimes called historical musicology, is a highly diverse subfield of the broader discipline of musicology that studies music from a historical point of view. In theory, "music history" could refer to the study of the history of ...

External links

Schubert Club
- official site
History of the Schubert Club

Schubert Club Museum

Music in the Park Series

Schubert Club in MNopedia, the Minnesota Encyclopedia

References

{{reflist Music organizations based in the United States Arts organizations based in Saint Paul, Minnesota Culture of Saint Paul, Minnesota Arts organizations established in 1882 1882 establishments in Minnesota