Name Julius Lenzberg | Role Composer | |
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Julius Lenzberg (January 3, 1878 to April 24, 1956) was a German-American composer of ragtime and jazz. He recorded a substantial number of jazz pieces with orchestra between 1919 and 1922, in addition to ragtime music such as his popular Hungarian Rag of 1913.
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Early life in Baltimore
Lenzberg was the youngest child of German (Prussian) immigrants Henry and Julia Lenzberg, and he had many brothers and sisters. His father worked as a cigar packer in Baltimore.
Jules, as he often called himself, worked at the Weber and Fields Vaudeville Club in Baltimore until it closed in November 1897, so the young Lenzberg then played violin and piano elsewhere. By 1900, he had published two marches, and was living with his parents and several siblings. His newly formed "orchestra of soloists" performed in October, 1900 at the Al Reeve's Music Hall in New York. In 1903, Jules married German-born Ella Lenzberg, and they moved permanently to New York City so he could pursue his music career.
Music career in New York
Lenzberg led an ensemble at New York's Circle Theater, and in summers played on Long Island and Long Branch, New Jersey. He soon was appointed musical director of the Colonial Theatre (New York City). By 1910 the Lenzbergs had moved to Queens, New York where they remained for the rest of their lives, and the move to Queens marked the beginning of his greatest period of productivity as a composer. The Hungarian Rag was the only huge seller, and his composing brought a comfortable income. Meanwhile, he continued to be a successful leader of his orchestra at the Colonial Theatre.
He often adapted familiar classical tunes to ragtime, as he did with his Hungarian Rag and Operatic Rag, inspiring others to "rag" famous tunes, though not always as successfully as Lenzberg. His Hungarian Rag was based upon the Hungarian Rhapsodies by Liszt. Lenzberg's Haunting Rag may be his most original work. Among Lenzberg's collaborators was the singer and songwriter Ernest Ball.
Lenzberg was in a group called the "Harmonists" who performed in vaudeville, and he was also musical director in 1919 for a Broadway revue called the "George White's Scandals". During that period, he also worked as manager at the B.F. Keith New Riverside Theater, where he and the Riverside Orchestra recorded dance tunes, mostly for the Edison Blue Amberol cylinders and Diamond Discs, and for the Pathe label. A news report from 1920 describes an interesting incident there:
Julius Lenzberg, leader of the orchestra at the Riverside Theatre, New York, recently featured during the intermission 'Tired of Me,' the new Irving Berlin, Inc., number. Mr. Lenzberg is something of a violin soloist himself, and put over the number so well that he was compelled to play the chorus twice. 'It is the first time I ever heard an audience demand an encore during intermission,' declared Mr. Lenzberg.
His work at the Riverside Theatre remained popular for years. His recordings stopped in 1922, but he continued making appearances throughout the decade, sometimes on radio, and sometimes leading the pit orchestra at the Palace Theater, which was the most desired vaudeville booking in the country.
Lenzberg was the musical director for the 1931 musical Nikki starring Fay Wray in the title role, and Archie Leach as Cary Lockwood (Leach borrowed his character's first name and became Cary Grant). In 1932, Lenzberg became assistant director of the Roxy Theater Symphony Orchestra run by composer Hugo Riesenfeld. He later moved into management, working for a theatrical management and property broker, but returned to the orchestra pit of the Palace Theater on August 10, 1948, for a star-studded gala broadcast on live television. He died at age 78 in 1956.