Simon Bucharoff (April 20, 1881November 24, 1955, born Simon Buchhalter) was an American pianist, composer and educator. Bucharoff was born in

Berdychiv Berdychiv (, ) is a historic city in Zhytomyr Oblast, northern Ukraine. It serves as the administrative center of Berdychiv Raion within the oblast. It is south of the administrative center of the oblast, Zhytomyr. Its population is approximat ...

, Russian Empire. His father was a cantor. His brother Isadore Buchhalter was also a pianist and educator who settled in Chicago. His family emigrated to New York when he was 11, where he began his piano studies with Paolo Gallico and Leopold Kramer. He returned to Europe and graduated from the Vienna Conservatory in 1902, having studied piano with Julius Epstein and Emil Sauer and composition with Stephen Stocker and

Robert Fuchs Robert Fuchs may refer to: * Robert Fuchs (composer) Robert Fuchs (15 February 1847 – 19 February 1927) was an Austrian composer and music teacher. As Professor of music theory at the Vienna Conservatory, Fuchs taught many notable composers, w ...

. He married Jennie G. Bluestone in 1902, and became a US citizen in 1904. He joined the Wichita College of Music in 1907, and in 1911 moved to Chicago and began focusing on composition. future US Vice President

Charles Dawes Charles Gates Dawes (August 27, 1865 – April 23, 1951) was the 30th vice president of the United States from 1925 to 1929 under President Calvin Coolidge. He was a co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1925 for his work on the Dawes Plan for ...

was a patron, his first opera ''A Lover's Knot'' was produced in 1916 (and saw a revival in 1923), and

Harold Arlen Harold Arlen (born Hyman Arluck; February 15, 1905 – April 23, 1986) was an American composer of popular music, who composed over 500 songs, a number of which have become known worldwide. In addition to composing the songs for the 1939 film ' ...

was among his composition students. In 1919, he changed his last name from Buchhalter to Bucharoff and moved to Europe in an attempt to further his composition career. After failing to produce an opera based on André Geiger's ''La Reine Amoureuse'' with Pierre Maudru, he moved to Germany and succeeded in producing his next opera ''Sakhara'' in 1924. His fortunes in Europe began to turn. There were disputes about revenue from ''Sakhara''. The climate for Jewish musicians in Germany exiled him to Italy, he left the score with Hofmeister in Leipzig; in the meantime, his planned production and publication of a new opera ''Der Golem'' with was pre-empted by

Eugen D'Albert Eugen (originally Eugène) Francis Charles d'Albert (10 April 1864 – 3 March 1932) was a Scottish-born pianist and composer who immigrated to Germany. Educated in Britain, d'Albert showed early musical talent and, at the age of seventeen, h ...

's '' Der Golem''. He never stopped trying to get paid for ''Sakhara''; even posthumously his family fought for restitution via the War Claims Act, and he attempted to reconstruct the opera. Upon returning to America in the 1920s, his works received prominent performances by the New York Philharmonic and at the Hollywood Bowl. But he never found commercial success as a composer. He attempted to convince

Eugene O'Neill Eugene Gladstone O'Neill (October 16, 1888 – November 27, 1953) was an American playwright. His poetically titled plays were among the first to introduce into the U.S. the drama techniques of Realism (theatre), realism, earlier associated with ...

to let him adapt ''

The Emperor Jones ''The Emperor Jones'' is a 1920 tragic play by American dramatist Eugene O'Neill that tells the tale of Brutus Jones, a resourceful, self-assured African American and a former Pullman porter, who kills another black man in a dice game, is jailed ...

'' to the opera stage. By 1934 he was living in Los Angeles, and the Depression found him unemployed. He was among many artists who entreated FERA to for grants and employment; Bucharoff wrote to

Harry Hopkins Harold Lloyd Hopkins (August 17, 1890 – January 29, 1946) was an American statesman, public administrator, and presidential advisor. A trusted deputy to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Hopkins directed New Deal relief programs before ser ...

directly. In 1937 he began working as a music editor and orchestrator for

Warner Brothers Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (WBEI), commonly known as Warner Bros. (WB), is an American filmed entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California and the main namesake subsidiary of Warner Bro ...

. Among the films he orchestrated were

Devotion Devotion or Devotions may refer to: Religion * Anglican devotions, private prayers and practices used by Anglican Christians * Buddhist devotion, commitment to religious observance * Catholic devotions, customs, rituals, and practices of worship ...

Of Human Bondage ''Of Human Bondage'' is a 1915 novel by W. Somerset Maugham. The novel is generally agreed to be Maugham's masterpiece and to be strongly autobiographical in nature, although he stated, "This is a novel, not an autobiography; though much in it ...

, The Sea Hawk and

The Big Sleep ''The Big Sleep'' (1939) is a hardboiled crime novel by American-British writer Raymond Chandler, the first to feature the detective Philip Marlowe. It has been adapted for film twice, in 1946 and again in 1978. The story is set in Los A ...

(all composed by fellow Austrians

Max Steiner Maximilian Raoul Steiner (10 May 1888 – 28 December 1971) was an Austrian composer and conductor who emigrated to America and became one of cinema of the United States, Hollywood's greatest musical composers. Steiner was a child prodi ...

and

Erich Korngold Erich Wolfgang Korngold (; May 29, 1897 – November 29, 1957) was an Austrian composer and conductor, who fled Europe in the mid-1930s and later adopted US nationality. A child prodigy, he became one of the most important and influential compo ...

). Bucharoff was a member of ASCAP, and received the David Bispham Award. He died in

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

. His archives are held at the University of North Texas.

Works

Musical works

Opera: * The Lover's Knot, libretto by Cora Bennett-Stephenson, premiered January 16, 1916 by

Chicago Opera Company The Chicago Opera Company was a grand opera Grand opera is a genre of 19th-century opera generally in four or five acts, characterized by large-scale casts and Orchestra, orchestras. The original productions consisted of spectacular design a ...

, conducted by

Cleofonte Campanini Cleofonte Campanini (1 September 1860 – 19 December 1919) was an Italian conductor and violinist. As a teenager he had a brief but successful career as a concert violinist in Italy and in theaters in Berlin and London. He abandoned the violin ...

published 1916 by

Schirmer Schirmer is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Adolf Schirmer (1850–1930), Norwegian architect * Astrid Schirmer (born 1941), German operatic soprano * August Schirmer (1905–1948), German Nazi propagandist * David S ...

. * Sakahra, libretto by Isabel Buckingham, premiered Oct 29 1924 by Frankfort Opera House Germany. * Jewel: The Everlasting Man * Addio * Wastrel Choral: * Salute to a Free World * Freedom on the March * Hear My Voice, O Lord * Jerusalem. Orchestral: * Four Tone Poems * The Wanderers Song * The Trumpeters Death (piano and orchestra) * America * Moses * Prelude * Valse Brillante * Das Sterbe Gloecklein * Capriccio For baritone and orchestra: * Parable of Nothin' and Somethin' * O Ye Peoples and Nations * Rejoicing * Laugh and Laugh and Laugh

Books

The Modern Pianist's Text Book

References

External links

*
the Simon Bucharoff Collection at UNT
Ukrainian classical composers 20th-century American male composers American composers Ukrainian educators 20th-century American educators Ukrainian pianists Ukrainian male pianists People from Berdychiv 1881 births 1955 deaths Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the United States American male pianists 20th-century American pianists {{US-composer-19thC-stub