Discipline: Music Composition

Hans Barth

Discipline: Music Composition
MacDowell Fellowships: 1937, 1938, 1940, 1941, 1942
Hans Barth (1897-1956) was a composer, arranger, pianist, and harpsichordist from Leipzig, Germany. Barth began his musical studies on a scholarship at the Leipzig Conservatory under the direction of Carl Reinecke. He then traveled to the United States in 1907 and made his recital debut in 1908. After meeting Ferruccio Busoni, he was inspired to experiment with scales, which led him to create a portable quarter tone piano in collaboration with George Weitz in 1928. He then toured throughout the United States and Europe playing the piano, harpsichord, and quarter tone piano. Barth also served as the director of the Institute of Music in Yonkers, NY, and of the National School for Music Culture in New York. He also held a position at the Mannes School of Music in New York, and at the Jacksonville College of Music in Florida.

Studios

Van Zorn (formerly Kirby)

Hans Barth worked in the Van Zorn (formerly Kirby) studio.

Constructed thanks to a bequest from Sarah L. Kirby, Kirby Studio was the last new building to be erected during Mrs. MacDowell’s leadership (1907-1951). The load-bearing masonry walls were laid by local mason Augustus Beaulieu atop a fieldstone foundation. A 1995 renovation preserved the brick fireplace with wooden mantel and…

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