Josef Pasternack

Conductor, Composer
(b. in Częstochowa, Poland, July 7, 1881 – April 29, 1940)

Well known conductor and composer in the first half of the 20th century.
His father and grandfather were bandmasters in Poland.
He began to study the violin at age 4. When he became 10 years old he entered the Warsaw Conservatory of Music, where he studied piano and composition.
While he was there he was also studying a different instrument each month, by the time he left the conservatory he could play every instrument in the orchestra except the harp.

At age 15 he came to the United States with his two brothers and father. Initially he worked in a hotel restaurant as a busboy. One day when the violin player for the hotel band did not come to work, he informed the bandleader that he was capable of filling in. He ran home and got his violin and returned to play. The regular violinist was not allowed to return. Shortly thereafter, he was able to convince the bandleader to permit his brothers to try out, and so they began their musical careers in America. Shortly thereafter, he toured the country as a concert pianist. In 1902, he was hired as violinist with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra in New York and then became first viola player, continuing until 1909. His ability came to the attention of the famed Arturo Toscanini, who had become conductor at the Metropolitan in 1908, and Pasternack was made assistant conductor in 1909, a position he filled for one year.

In 1911 he returned to Europe as conductor of the Bremen Opera, but the Metropolitan asked for his release and he returned to the Met as a conductor for 1911-13. During the period 1913-26, he was conductor of the Century Opera Company in New York, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and the Philadelphia Philharmonic Society. While at the Philadelphia Philharmonic, he introduced Marian Anderson as the first African-American singer to perform there. Starting in 1916 he also was musical director of the Victor Talking Machine Company (later RCA Victor) with Rosario Bourdon, where likewise he (Pasternack) introduced Marian Anderson; and the Stanley Company of America, owned by Warner Brothers. In his role at Victor and with several orchestras he made recordings and conducted programs for many famous singers of the day, most notably Enrico Caruso, and directed many of the famous musicians of the day, including Fritz Kreisler and Jascha Heifetz. From 1928 until his death in 1940 he conducted orchestras for NBC in the days of live radio, including a show with Nelson Eddy and The Carnation Contented Hour. He composed songs and music for motion pictures and radio, and wrote the lyrics for "Taps".
He was married in 1904 to Helen Feirman, and had two daughters, Florence and Cecile.