Rutgers-Camden prof revives music lost to Holocaust

December 03, 2003

CONTACT: Cathy Karmilowicz, Rutgers-Camden public information office, (856) 225-6627, catkarm@camden.rutgers.edu

For Immediate Release

CAMDEN – The forgotten works of a German composer whose legacy was largely eradicated by the Nazi regime are being introduced to the 21st century, thanks to a Rutgers-Camden music scholar whose first solo CD premiers the vocal works of Robert Kahn.

Released on Jan. 10, “Jungbrunnen,” which means “Fountain of Youth,” features 30 songs in German, including a seven-song cycle with poetry by Paul Heyse. Tenor Martin Dillon, an assistant professor of music at Rutgers University-Camden, is accompanied by David Holkeboer, piano, Peter Sanders, cello, and Gabriel Schaff, violin.

Born in 1865 to a wealthy Jewish family in Germany, Robert Kahn was one of seven children. His brother, Otto Kahn, would become a key figure in establishing the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. Robert Kahn also had artistic aspirations; at a young age, he began his music career with the piano. Kahn studied music composition with numerous noted German music figures, including Emil Paur and Vinzez Lachner, and attended the Royal Academy in Berlin, where, as professor of music, he would teach star pupils like pianist Wilhelm Kempff and conductor Ferdinand Leitner.

Pressured from the Nazi regime, and advised by friend and fellow member of the Berlin Royal Academy Society Albert Einstein, Kahn left Germany in 1934 as a well-known and widely published composer. He settled with his wife, Katharina, in England, never to return to his beloved homeland. Tragically, nothing written by Jewish composers was to be published after 1933. Kahn’s music was mostly forgotten after World War II. His concentration on smaller forms of music, such as chamber music, piano pieces, choral works and Leider, or German song, may have also contributed to his near fading from musical history. Dillon was introduced to Kahn’s music in Tutzing, south of Munich, while performing with the German composer’s great-grandson, David Greiner, who has since been involved in the CD’s production.

“During a sold-out recital at a fairy tale castle on Lake Starnberg, where King Ludwig II drowned himself, a soprano and countertenor also on the program, sang duets and songs by Robert Kahn. I was amazed that I had not been exposed to this composer. I've been a finalist in the major lieder competitions in the world, and I had never heard of Robert Kahn,” says the Rutgers-Camden educator.

Germany’s recent renewed interest in Kahn currently is spreading to the United States. Dillon attributes the German composer’s resurgence to his lyrical melodies and song cycles with chamber orchestra. “There is not a lot of music available for voice and a small number of instruments; Kahn’s pieces makes for lovely, intimate performances,” states Dillon. “Not to mention, the songs feel great in my voice, which is the real factor when it comes to selecting a composer. It was a remarkable coincidence, a stroke of luck, or just a love of the art form that brought me to this music.” The serious and somber mood of the music is comparable to that of Johannes Brahms, whom Kahn befriended in 1886.

Musicians interested in performing Kahn’s works, may face challenges finding copies of his music; Dillon is at the moment the only musician performing his vocal music in the nation. The CD has not yet been released, and Dillon already has received requests to perform Kahn’s music in Ankara, Turkey this spring, and at the Central Vermont Summer Chamber Music Festival this summer.

“As I have gotten to know the Kahn family, I have witnessed some of the pain that has long accompanied survivors of the Holocaust. I’m honored to be singing Kahn’s unforgettable music,” says Dillon.

Dillon joined Rutgers-Camden in 1990 as an artist-in-residence. He has starred in over 35 leading roles in European and American Opera Houses, and has had six performances singing in Carnegie Hall with today’s leading opera singers, such as June Anderson, Renee Fleming, Olga Borodina, and Sergei Leiferkus. He returns to Carnegie Hall on Dec. 14, for a sold-out performance of Donizetti’s “Anna Bolena,” featuring bass James Morris, mezzo-soprano Jennifer Larmore and the Opera Orchestra of New York. Dillon earned his bachelor’s degree from the Cincinnati Conservatory, where he studied on full scholarship, and a master’s degree from the University of Oklahoma, where he was a Benton Scholar and an honorary Phi Kappa Lambda inductee. The internationally regarded tenor directs the Rutgers-Camden Musical Theater Program.

-30-

EDITOR/REPORTER: To arrange an interview with Dillon, or obtain a jpg headshot or image of the CD, contact Cathy Karmilowicz at (856) 225-6627.