Erich Katz

Erich Katz (July 31, 1900 – July 30, 1973) was a German-born musicologist, composer, music critic, musician and professor. He fled the Nazis in 1939, arriving first in England, emigrating to the United States in 1943, where he became a citizen. He was a driving force behind the early music and recorder movements in the United States. Bernard Krainis, a co-founder of New York Pro Musica studied with Katz.

Biographical details Katz was born into a prosperous Jewish family in Posen, then part of Prussia, now Poznań, Poland. His father was Albert Katz, a jeweler and watchmaker, the son of a baker.

Katz initially began studying engineering, but switched to music after one semester.

Katz was married to Adelheid Soltau, who was not Jewish, in 1926. Katz also directed the New York Musician's Workshop, a group of singers and instrumentalists which performed early and contemporary music. Most of those in the group were students of his from the college. He reorganized ARS in 1947 and remained its music director until 1959.

His classes were influential for many students. His music history class was described as including not just discussion and listening, but students also performed the music, better enabling them to learn about the music. His harmony and composition classes were described as equally inspiring and beneficial. Student LaNoue Davenport wrote, "Being educated by [Katz] involved not only a verbal-intellectual process, but the body and spirit as well." He was friends with composers Carl Orff and Paul Hindemith and his own compositions, particularly of chamber and choral music, were influenced by their music.

Between 1947 and 1952, he corresponded with Hermann Hesse. In 1959, Katz moved to Santa Barbara, California, where he worked at the Santa Barbara City College until his death in 1973. although Orff remained in Germany during the Third Reich and ultimately found favor with the Nazi cultural establishment.

Katz became a naturalized American citizen. and he arranged and wrote music for the recorder and other instruments, as well as for voice, writing hundreds of manuscripts. The American Recorder Society has an Erich Katz Memorial Fund, which holds a composition contest.

Notable students Bernard Krainis

Publications and recordings (selected list) "In the Beginning", American Recorder XIX/4 (February 1979), pp. 155–156

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