Fine Music: the Sendreys

 

Wow! Amazed by the rich cultural and musical background of my brother in law’s ancestors: Alfred and Albert Sendrey. MY nephews have definitely fine music in their blood.

Alfred Sendrey, my nephews’ great- great grandfather.

(b Budapest, 29 Feb 1884; d Los Angeles, 3 March 1976). Hungarian-American conductor and composer. A pupil of Koessler at the Budapest Academy (1901-5), he worked in Germany, the USA and Austria as an opera conductor, (also of the Leipzig SO, 1924-32), then moved to Paris (1933-40) and finally to the USA, where he completed his studies of Jewish music.

Albert Sendrey, my nephews’ Great grandfather.

Date of Birth 26 December 1911, Chicago, Illinois, USA

Date of Death  18 May 2003, Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA (congestive heart failure)

Prolific but often-uncredited film/TV composer, conductor, author, orchestrator and arranger, educated at the Leipzig Conservatory and the Trinity College of Music in London. He also studied with John Barbirolli, Albert Coates, Henry Geehl, and his father, Alfred Sendrey (the Hungarian-born opera singer and composer). Albert Sendrey grew up surrounded by music. His mother, Eugenie, had been a soprano for the Vienna Opera under Gustav Mahler. During his lengthy career, he contributed to over 170 films and television shows, signing with MGM in the 1940s and, from 1956 to 1964, working as pianist and conductor for Tony Martin's live performances, including those in Las Vegas, where in 1953 he began writing production numbers for the Riviera and Sands. (Tony Martin said of Albert "I liked his piano style ... because he felt for singers. He just seemed to have that inner sense of when to play an artistic run and when to just play soft and play low. He set tempos great.") He arranged the Broadway musicals "Peter Pan" (1954) and "New Faces of 1956" and wrote special material for night clubs.

 Trivia

Father, 'Dr. Alfred Sendrey', was a famed professor of music whose pupils included 'Henry Mancini'.

Mr Alfred Sendrey , great- great grandfather.

Mr Albert Sendrey, Great grandfather, with a baby in his arms, who is the Grand father of my nephews.