Karl Weigl

Karl Weigl (1881–1949) was an Austrian-American composer and music educator, husband of pianist and composer Vally Weigl. He was born in Vienna and started taking private lessons with Alexander Von Zemlinsky in 1896. Weigl continued his studies in composition with Robert Fuchs at the Vienna Music Academy and enrolled in the University of Vienna to learn musicology, where he was Anton Webern classmate. Karl married Valerie Pick, who used to be his private music student, in 1921. The couple started giving duo-piano recitals. In 1932, Weigl's only opera Der Rattenfänger von Hameln (The Pied Piper of Hamelin) was staged in Vienna.

When the Nazis occupied Austria in 1938, new racial laws classified Weigl family as Jewish. Karl was reluctant to leave the country, but Vally insisted they need to emigrate to protect the family. With a help of the New Friends of Music in New York and the Quaker Society of Friends, Weigls managed to escape via Switzerland and Britain and reached New York safely in October 1938. Karl and Vally Weigl acquired American citizenship in 1943.

In the USA, Karl Weigl worked as a teacher at various prestigious institutions, such as the Hartt School, Brooklyn College, Boston Conservatory and the Philadelphia Academy Of Music. Notable Weigl's students include Rosy Wertheim and Ernst Bacon.

In 1967, The Karl Weigl Memorial Fund was established at Hartt School to preserve Weigls legacy and to encourage the appreciation of music suppressed during the Nazi period. Hartt School, Baylor University, Indiana University and the Hartt School established The Karl Weigl Performance Awards in 1979, and the same year the fund relocated to Indiana University Bloomington. The organization turned non-profit and changed the name to The Karl Weigl Foundation in 1999.

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