Max Donner

Max Donner (22 May 1883/4 – 30 May 1962) was an American violinist, composer, conductor, and teacher of violin, chamber music, and composition. Life and career The son of Adolph and Bertha Donner, he grew up in New York City and studied violin with Henry Schradieck. At age fifteen, Donner traveled to Europe and studied at Berlin’s Stern Conservatory under Gustav Hollaender (violin) and Hans Pfitzner (composition). At Stern, Donner was the first American to be awarded the Gustav Hollaender Medal. He then studied with César Thomson and Eugène Ysaÿe in Brussels, where he won first prize in violin at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels. Following a tour of Europe as a violin soloist, Donner returned to the United States, where he continued to give recitals, including with Ernestine Schumann-Heink. Donner served as the concertmaster of the Seattle Symphony under the direction of conductor Henry Kimball Hadley. He then moved to California, where he joined the violin section of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Hollywood Bowl Orchestra and taught violin, at one time heading the violin department of the Los Angeles Conservatory of Music. As a conductor, Donner worked with Los Angeles’ WPA Fe