Prausnitz, Frederik (actually, Frederick William)
Prausnitz, Frederik (actually, Frederick William)
Prausnitz, Frederik (actually, Frederick William ), German-born American conductor and teacher; b. Cologne, Aug. 26, 1920. He went to the U.S. in his youth and studied at the Juilliard School of Music in N.Y. He later served on its faculty (1947–61), and then was conductor of the New England Cons. of Music sym. orch. in Boston (1961–69). He was music director of the Syracuse (N.Y.) Sym. Orch. from 1971 to 1974. In 1976 he joined the Peabody Cons. of Music in Baltimore as conductor of its sym. orch. and opera. From 1980 he acted as director of its conducting program and conductor of its Contemporary Music Ensemble, retiring in 1997. Prausnitz appeared widely as a guest conductor in the U.S. and Europe, garnering a reputation as a leading advocate of contemporary music. He was awarded the Gustav Mahler Medal of Honor of the Bruckner Society of America (1974). He publ. Score and Podium: A Complete Guide to Conducting (1983) and Roger Sessions: A Critical Biography (1983).
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire