Ernest Kanitz

Ernest Kanitz (born Ernst Kanitz; 9 April 1894 – 7 April 1978) was an Austrian-American composer and pedagogue.

Biography Kanitz was born in Vienna, Austria-Hungary on 9 April 1894. Born Ernst, he changed his name to Ernest in order to differentiate himself from a Viennese concert manager of the same name. He studied law at the University of Vienna concurrently pursuing piano lessons and studying theory and music composition. He graduated in 1918. Schreker conducted the first performance of his Lustige Ouvertüre (Cheerful Overture) in the autumn of 1918. Following the performance, the overture was described as "a witty, pretty composition" and referred to as his best-known work in Musikblätter des Anbruch (1921).

In 1921, he received initial exposure through the première under Alexander von Zemlinsky of his oratorio Das Hohelied (The Song of Songs). This enabled him to take a professorship which commenced in 1922 at the Neues Konservatorium where he taught analysis, theory and composition for 16 years.

On 4 February 1926, Austrian conductor Clemens Krauss gave the successful première of Kanitz's Four Orchestral Songs.

He founded the Vienna Women's Chorus in 1930 which he conducted until 1938. In forming the chorus it was his objective to present contemporary choral music, including works by Stravinsky, Honegger, and Kodály,

Kanitz was of Jewish ancestry, and although he had converted to Christianity in 1914, he was still forced to leave Austria following its annexation by the Nazis in 1938. After a short stay in New York, Kanitz and his wife Gertrude settled in Rock Hill, South Carolina, where he found a teaching position. After her early death from cancer, Kanitz relocated in California and established a successful teaching career at the University of Southern California. He retired from USC in 1960, but continued to compose, and his works were premièred by leading US orchestras, such as the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

Kanitz died in Menlo Park, California on 7 April 1978. After his death, his music was largely forgotten and few recordings of it have been available. In 2025, an album of chamber works, including his Violin Sonata op. 10 (1921) and String Quartet (1945), was released by Chandos Records. From 1945, Kanitz taught at the faculty of the University of Southern California for 14 years. Among his more notable students were Houston Bright, Paul Cooper, Howard L. Quilling, Karl Schiske and Williametta Spencer, television composer Don B. Ray, musical theorist Leon Dallin and American composer Benjamin Lees (1924–2010). He taught at Marymount College for four years commencing in 1960.

Selected works 1918 – Lustige Ouvertüre (Cheerful Overture) 1923-9 – Der Wunder-Wilan, opera 1926 – Vier Gesänge (Four Songs), soprano and orchestra Op. 11 1931 – Zeitmusik (Music of Our Time) for baritone solo 1936 – Gotthelf Schlicht, cantata for soloist, mixed choir and orchestra 1938 – Concertino for theremin and orchestra 1939 – God's Minute, SATB choir with piano 1945 – String Quartet 1950 – Notturno for flute, violin and viola 1953 – Kumana, opera in one act 1956 – Room No. 12, opera 1959 – The Lucky Dollar, chamber opera 1964 – Visions of Midnight, opera-cantata 1964 – Concerto for bassoon and orchestra 1970 – Little Concerto for alto saxophone solo 1974 – Sinfonietta da Camera for violin, sax, piano or celesta and percussion