Jacques Singer

While there, as reported by Time magazine, Singer became engaged in a feud with critic John ("Rosy") Rosenfield (born Max John Rosenfield Jr.; 1900–1966) of The Dallas Morning News.

Rosenfield lauded Singer early on, but soon turned against him.

Singer became angry enough to print handbills and make speeches defending himself during concert intermissions.

Jacques Singer (May 9, 1910 – August 11, 1980) was an American virtuoso violinist, symphony orchestra conductor, and music educator who flourished from about 1925 until a few months before his death in 1980.

Jakob Singer was born in Przemyśl, Austria-Hungary (present-day Poland).

He trained in the violin from an early age.

He began to give concerts in Poland at age seven.

In 1920, his family moved to the United States, settling in Jersey City.

Before making any sort of official American debut, Singer, as a teenager, had been playing recitals, in one case, at a Columbia University student social gathering at Earl Hall.

In 1923, Singer became a scholarship violin student of Leopold Auer and his associate, Jacob Mestechkin (1880–1953).

He made his American debut in New York the evening of February 11, 1925 at Town Hall performing (in solo) Bach's G-minor Fugue; then with pianist Siegfried Schultze, Paganini's D major concerto; then with Schultze and violinist Jacob Mestechkin (his teacher), Christian Sinding's Serenade for two violins and piano.

Singer attended the Curtis Institute of Music on a scholarship in 1926 – in the third year after the institute was founded.

While there, he studied with Carl Flesch.

Curtis did not issue diplomas during its first ten years.

Singer was in The Students' Orchestra for Curtis' 1926–1927 season.

Leopold Stokowski was conductor.

Singer began attending the Juilliard School in 1927, studying with Leopold Auer, Paul Kochanski, and Rubin Goldmark.

Singer was also a violinist with the Juilliard Graduate School String Orchestra; Albert Stoessel was the conductor.

Singer graduated from Juilliard in 1930.

While at Juilliard, Singer became a violinist with the Philadelphia Orchestra at age eighteen, their youngest member at the time.

The orchestra had been founded in 1934 by Stokowski and, before Singer, was conducted by Sylvan Levin.

The orchestra, at that time, was composed of musicians from ages 13 to 25.

Leopold Stokowski took an interest in him and requested he conduct a contemporary piece at one of the rehearsals in 1935.

From watching Stokowski, he picked up several of the maestro's practices: conducting without baton (or score at times), making instructional comments to an audience, and stopping performances during disturbances.

These he employed as conductor of the orchestra's youth orchestra in 1936.

In 1936, Singer reorganized and began conducting the Philadelphia Youth Orchestra.

With a recommendation from Stokowski, Singer made his conducting debut with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra on February 1, 1938.

He remained with that orchestra until 1942.

Audience reaction to his style and personality was positive, the symphony budget doubled, and subscriptions tripled.

By the 1942–43 season, most of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra's musicians were enlisted in the armed services.

During World War II Singer served as a private in the U.S. Army.

He saw active service and received three battle stars for New Guinea, Bataan, and Corregidor.

He conducted army band concerts, including the first concert given after the liberation of Corregidor.

In 1946, he conducted 28 concerts in eight weeks for the summer New Orleans Pops Concerts.

A guest conducting engagement with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra led to his appointment as a conductor of that orchestra from 1947 to 1951.

Singer, an advocate of contemporary music by established and emerging composers has been chronicled favorably by musicologists for programing works, including a March 1948 performance by the VSO of Walter Piston's Prelude and Fugue for Orchestra, commissioned in 1934 by the League of Composers.

The First Symposium of Canadian Contemporary Music was held in Vancouver March 12–15, 1950, at the Hotel Vancouver and the Denman Auditorium under the sponsorship of the Vancouver Symphony Society and the Community Arts Council of Vancouver.

Singer was the initiator and music director of the Symposium.

Alec Walton was chairman of the symposium.

In spring 1951, Rosenfield published an article in the Southwest Review refuting that a feud transpired, or, rather, that Time's depiction of his criticism was, on balance, overblown, considering the critical acclaim on Singer that he published in The Dallas Morning News.