Name Rudolph Polk | Died June 16, 1957 | |
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Rudolph ("Rudy") Polk (25 November 1892 New York, New York – 16 June 1957 Los Angeles) was an American concert violinist based in New York City during his early years and, during his later years, a Hollywood film director, film industry executive, and artist manager for Jascha Heifetz, Vladimir Horowitz, José Iturbi, and Gregor Piatigorsky. In Hollywood, Polk was the assistant musical director to Morris Stoloff at Columbia Pictures. After World War II, Polk was musical director for Enterprise Studios.
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Polk was family friends with Jacob Previn, father of André and Steve Previn.
Musical training
Polk graduated from the Hochschule für Musik in Berlin where he studied violin with Henri Marteau. He performed many times with the Berlin Philharmonic in the Early 1920s. He also toured with Feodor Chaliapin (and his longtime piano accompanyist, Fyodor Keneman) in the United States. Polk also studied composition with Paul Juon.
Filmography
As music supervisor
As musical director
As songwriter
As producer
As film scorer
Television
As producer
Family
Rudolph married Pauline née Stone (1896–1986) in Manhattan, New York, on Mar 16, 1919. They had two children, Peter and Martha (Hamilton).
Posthumous memorial scholarship
Jascha Heifetz and Gregor Piatigorsky helped fund the posthumous Rudolph Polk Memorial Scholarship at Claremont Colleges.