Tovačov, 1888 – 1972, Bussum
Hugo Kauder was born in Austrian Tobitschau (today´s Tovačov in the Czech Republic). His father was the head master of the local middle school. He acquired his preliminary musical education locally before moving to Vienna in 1905 where he studied at the city´s Technical College, though breaking his degree in order to research Early Music together with the composer Egon Lustgarten. From 1907 to 1911, he played successively violin then viola in Wiener Tonkünstler-Orchester, one of the orchestras that would eventually merge to become the Vienna Symphony. Kauder became a musical coryphée gaining prominence as a composer, teacher and writer. With Austria´s annexation by Nazi Germany, Kauder escaped first to the Netherlands, then to Great Britain before arriving in New York in 1940 where he taught composition at Hermann Grab´s music school, wrote reviews for the Austro-American Tribune and edited the works of the philosopher Ernst Fuhrmann. Kauder composed over 200 works including five symphonies, nineteen string quartets and a large opera Merlin based on a libretto by the philosopher Rudolf Pannwitz.
