Ignace Strasfogel
[1909-1994]
"Ignaz Strasfogel was born 17 July 1909 in Warsaw, Poland. He was the only child from his father’s second marriage. While his father was a salesman by trade, it is thought Strasfogel’s parents were also involved in the restaurant business in France, as this was the occupation of the majority of the extended family at the time. Ingaz’s father died in 1912 and the Strasfogel family, led by mother Tsiporah (née Goldberg), relocated to her native city of Berlin to be closer to their extended family.
Little is known of Strasfogel’s early life or his musical studies before his successful entrance into the Hochschule für Musik Berlin in 1922, aged thirteen. While enrolled, he pursued studies in piano performance with Richard Rossler and later with Leonid Kreutzer, and music theory with Samuel Lieberson, a former pupil of Rimski-Korsakov. Strasfogel continued under Lieberson’s tutelage for one year, at which time he was accepted, aged 14, into Franz Schreker’s composition class. Strasfogel’s tutelage under Schreker would come to define his compositional character and, unlike other pupils (such as Ernst Křenek, Alois Hába and Felix Petyrek) who came to reject their mentor’s teachings, Strasfogel maintained a strong connection with him, both in friendship and in his compositional style."
-Excerpt from "Ignace Strasfogel (1909-1994)" by Dr Ryan Hugh Ross, ORT Music and the Holocaust website
For more information, please visit:
https://holocaustmusic.ort.org/resistance-and-exile/ignace-strasfogel/
