Joseph Cherniavsky

Joseph Cherniavsky (, 1890-1959) was a Jewish American cellist, theatre and film composer, orchestra director, and recording artist. He wrote for the Yiddish theatre, made some of the earliest novelty recordings mixing American popular music, Jazz and klezmer in the mid-1920s, was also musical director at Universal Studios in 1928-1929, and had a long career in radio and musical theatre.

Biography Early life Josef Leo Cherniavsky was born in Lubny, Poltava Governorate, Russian Empire around 1890. The exact date of his birth is unclear; a citizenship application by his wife in 1928 said March 29, 1889; he himself said on US military documents that it was March 29, 1890, while the Lexicon of Yiddish Theatre says it was March 31, 1894. His father was a klezmer musician, as was his grandfather. Cherniavsky had collected Jewish melodies in villages during that era and contributed them to the development of the ensemble's repertoire. The ensemble's goal was to embark on tours of Eastern Russia, Asia, and the United States, with their final goal being Palestine. However, rather than continue with their stated goal of fundraising for an artistic centre in Mandate Palestine, gradually the group broke apart, and at least three of its members (Cherniavsky, Mestechkin and Bellison) settled in the US and started music careers there. Famous klezmers who played in this orchestra included Naftule Brandwein, Dave Tarras and Shloimke Beckerman. In 1924 his recordings for Pathé Records as the Cherniavsky Jewish Jazz Band were marketed as the first "Jewish Jazz Band" in the country. Dave Tarras later said that the music had not really been Jazz, but just "nice theatre music". Klezmer researcher Jeffrey Wollock describes the act's music as "neither jazz nor true klezmer, his arrangements were modernistic, theatrical treatments of Jewish content." By 1925 the orchestra disbanded. In 1926 he was made composer and conductor at the newly opening Public Theatre at Second Avenue and 4th Street. and the Lexicon of Yiddish Theatre notes that he retired from the theatre after his stay at the Public Theatre in 1926-7. That program, called the Libby Hotel Program, ran from May to August of that year and may have featured Dave Tarras on the clarinet. In late 1927 he once again tried to launch a vaudeville tour, this time under the name Cherniavsky and his Orientals, specializing in "Chassidic and Caucasian music".

Mainstream American music career After leaving the Yiddish theatre around 1927, Cherniavsky gravitated towards mainstream English music, whether in radio, film or theatre. In February 1928 he launched a new radio series with Josef Cherniavsky's Colonials Orchestra at the Colony Theatre in New York; they had made their stage debut at the opening of The Chinese Parrot. Later in 1928 Carl Laemmle appointed him musical director at Universal Studios and Cherniavsky relocated to Hollywood. One of the few films he scored during this time was Show Boat (1929).

Cherniavsky spent the 1930s working contracts in various cities in radio, television and theatre. In 1930 he briefly worked in Toronto at the Uptown Theatre. He spent a few years running an orchestra called the Sympho-Syncopators. Then he was musical director of the Chicago Theatre around 1933-35. In 1936 he launched a television series called The Musical Cameraman on NBC. Around 1938, Cherniavsky and his family relocated to Cincinnati. A group photo of Joseph Cherniavsky and His Greater Gibson Sympho-Syncopators (early 1930s).

During the Second World War, he continued to work in radio, leaving WLW Cincinnati for WOV New York in 1941 and then WEII CBS Radio in Boston in 1942. In the early 1940s, he also ran another orchestra called the Boy Meets Girl Orchestra. In 1949 Cherniavsky spent time in Johannesburg, South Africa where he was musical director for a production of Oklahoma! as well as some Ballet productions.

After 1949, he continued in music as the conductor of the Saginaw Civic Symphony from 1951 to 1959.

Personal life Joseph's wife was a pianist named Lara (née Lieberman) was born in Nikolaev, where they were married in June 1917. Their son William was born in June 1918 in Russia and their daughter Salomea (Sally Fox) was born in California in December 1929. Sally would go on to become a professional photographer and editor of books of art about women's everyday lives in history, while William became a television scriptwriter in Hollywood.

Cherniavsky died on 3 November 1959 in New York City. In 1993, one of his 1920s recordings appeared on the compilation Klezmer Pioneers (European And American Recordings 1905-1952) by Rounder Records, and in the same year on the compilation Mazel Tov: more music of the Jewish people by Intersound, Inc. In 1999 another track of his was reissued on Oytsres Treasures: klezmer music, 1908-1996 by Wergo records.