KURT WEILL (1900-1950)
The son of a Jewish cantor in Dessau, Germany, Weill was born in 1900. 
As a youth he took lessons in piano, organ, composition, orchestration, 
conducting and score reading. At age 18 he was admitted into Berlin's 
Hochschule f¸r Musik and studied with Englebert Humperdinck and 
eventually, Ferruccio Busoni. Weill's early works, written in serious 
art style, were strongly influenced by his teachers. 

In 1927, Weill met the poet and playwright, Bertold Brecht, one of a 
group of political activists who objected to the Weimar Republic's 
politics. Two years Weill's senior, Brecht, with his strong political 
opinions and social philosophies, reformed 20th century German theatre 
and greatly influence Weill. Weill and Brecht "shared the spark of 
inspiration" and in "Mahagonny Songspiel," their first collaboration, 
Weill initiated certain musical innovations that were unique to the 
norms of the day. "I am convinced that the close collaboration of two 
equally productive individuals can lead to something fundamentally new. 
There can certainly be no doubt that at present, a completely new form 
of stage work is evolving."-Weill. Their next highly successful 
collaborations, "Die Dreigroschenoper" (The Three Penny Opera), 
premiered in 1928, and "Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny," 
premiered in 1930, brought international fame to both men. By the end 
of 1930, due to differing political and musical philosophies, a serious 
rift developed between them and the two men went their separate ways. 

It eventually became impossible for Weill and his singer/actress wife, 
Lotte Lenya, to work under the Nazi Party's rising cultural/political 
domination in Germany. The couple moved to France in 1933 and 
permanently exiled themselves to the United States by 1935. Upon 
arriving in the United States, it seemed a natural choice for Weill to 
seek employment in New York's commercial theaters. His quiet manner and 
composed exterior were well suited for collaborative ventures. Greatly 
concerned with widening the scope of the American stage, Weill sought 
out the most important lyricists and playwrights with whom to work. His 
American works and collaborators for the musical stage are as follows: 
"Johnny Johnson" (1936)-Paul Green, "Knickerbocker Holiday" (1938)-
Maxwell Anderson, "Lady in the Dark" (1941)-Moss Hart and Ira Gershwin, 
"One Touch of Venus" (1943)-Ogden Nash, "The Firebrand of Florence" 
(1945)-Ira Gershwin, "Street Scene" (1947)-Elmer Rice and Langston 
Hughes, "Love Life" (1948)- Alan Jay Lerner, and "Lost in the Stars" 
(1949)-Maxwell Anderson. 

When he immigrated to America, Weill's life-long desire to reform the 
style of opera transformed into a deep conviction about the development 
of "Broadway opera." In the 1930s when the composer adopted the American 
Broadway musical style, it was viewed a "sell-out" by his European 
critics. Weill believed that his style change was a means of bringing 
European characteristics to the music of Tin Pan Alley. Despite what the 
critics said, Weill's successful blending of two musical cultures created 
a new standard of musical excellence that he passed on to the next 
generation of musical theatre composers; namely Blitzstein, Sondheim, and 
Bernstein. Luciano Berio summarized that "the musical theatre of Weill is, 
even now, one of the most significant events of the twentieth century." 

After Weill's untimely death at age 50 from heart failure, Lotte Lenya 
established the Kurt Weill Foundation in New York. The center remains the 
headquarters for research grants and information, offering advice on scores 
and recordings as well as sponsoring conferences and symposia.

NB 4/03