Alexander Presuhn(1870–1950)

Alexander Theodor Presuhn was a violinist, violist, concertmaster, composer, arranger and music director.
He comes from a family of painters, visual designers and litographers in Oldenburg. His father ran a lithographic institution in Graz. Alexander Presuhn was born in Graz on January 10, 1850. He learnt his musical skills at the school of the Steirischer Musikverein in Graz, and in a very brief time of study in 1889/1890 at the Royal Conservatory for Music in Leipzig, worked as a violist, violinist, concertmaster and also as conductor at the city theatre in his hometown Graz for a few years, then moved to Stuttgart in 1900. There he became the concertmaster of the court orchestra at the theatre, was a solo violist for two years and promoted to music director in 1916. He worked in this position until 1935. As a music director he also had to wrtte (about 50) theatre music works. He composed church music, including the mass in C major for eight voice choir and orchestra, songs, the fairytale opera 'The Violinist from Gmünd', chamber music (two string trios) and a few works for (solo) viola. Six out of these are (single movement) viola concertos. Apart from the mass and one of the viola concertos, all works are available in the autograph. Presuhn died on January 6, 1950 in Unterlenningen by Kirchheim/Teck.
A comprehensive article on Alexander Presuhn has appeared in the yearbook 2015 of the Society for Music History in Baden-Württemberg with publisher Strube, Munich (ISBN 978-3-89912-190-2). The authors are Gerhardt Löffler and Prof. Dr. Ulrich Prinz.