Beatrice Beer

Once Silenced by the Holocaust, Composer Joseph Beer's Music Returns

By Susan Lewis • Apr 30, 2017

A recent recording of an opera that premiered in 1937 shines a light on a Polish composer. He survived the Holocaust, but emerged from hiding only to shun his earlier success. WRTI’s Susan Lewis has more on Joseph Beer.

In 1938, a Young Composer On His Way to World Renown, Was Forced Into Hiding

By Ruth Waldman Schultz • Apr 23, 2017

Despite being a Polish Jew, 17-year-old aspiring composer Joseph Beer won admission in 1925 to the prestigious Hochschule fur Musik in Vienna, which had a quota for both Jews and Poles. He was also allowed to skip the first four years of the curriculum to study composition in master classes, and went on to graduate with highest honors.

It was 1930, two years before Hitler became chancellor of Germany.