Henry Sopkin (20 October 1903 New York – 1 March 1988 Palo Alto, California) was an American conductor. He founded, and for 21 years, from 1945 to 1966, led the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.[1][2] Before that, he had been a long-standing pedagogue at the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago, where he taught conducting and led the Conservatory Symphony Orchestra.[3][4]

Career highlights

edit

Sopkin studied the violin as a youth and entered the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago, where he grew up, earning both bachelor's and master's degrees in music. In the 1920s and 1930s, he taught at the American Conservatory, at Chicago area high schools, and at Woodrow Wilson College before the Atlanta Music Club hired him in 1944. Under the patronage of the Atlanta Music Club, founded in 1915, the Atlanta Symphony emerged in 1947 from a successful Atlanta Youth Orchestra conducted by Sopkin. When he retired in 1966, the Symphony became fully professional.[5][6][7] His son, Charles Sopkin (1932-1994) was an author, editor and publisher.

Cultural offices
Preceded by
Sopkin was founder
Founding Music Director, Atlanta Symphony
1945–1966
Succeeded by
edit

References

edit
  1. ^ The ASCAP Biographical Dictionary, American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers
       3rd ed. (1966); OCLC 598257, 604233677
       4th ed. (1980); OCLC 7065938, 10721505
  2. ^ Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians (Ganz is in Vol. 2 of 6), Macmillan; Schirmer
       6th ed., Slonimsky (ed.) (1978); OCLC 4426869
       7th ed., Slonimsky (ed.) (1984); OCLC 10574930
       8th ed., Slonimsky (ed.) (1992); OCLC 24246972
       9th ed., Laura Kuhn (ed.) (born 1953) (2001); OCLC 44972043
  3. ^ Biographical Dictionary of Twentieth-Century Classical Musicians, Nicolas Slonimsky (ed), Schirmer (1997); OCLC 36111932
  4. ^ Biography Index, H.W. Wilson Co.; ISSN 0006-3053
       Vol. 4: Sep. 1955–Aug. 1958 (1960)
  5. ^ "Founding Conductor of ASO, Henry Sopkin, dies at age 84", Atlanta Journal-Constitution, March 3, 1988
  6. ^ The New Grove Dictionary of American Music, (Sopkin is in Vol. 4 of 4), H. Wiley Hitchcock & Stanley Sadie (eds.), London: Macmillan Press, (1986); OCLC 13184437
  7. ^ Who's Who in America. 38th ed., 1974–1975, Wilmette, IL: Marquis Who's Who (1974); OCLC 23953115