biography
| name: |
Loewe, Frederick
|
| |
known as Fritz
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pronunciation:
[loh]
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (1904–88)
|
| biography:
| Composer, born in Vienna, Austria. The son of an operetta tenor Edmund Loewe, at age 13 he was the youngest pianist to solo with the Berlin Symphony. At age 15 he composed ‘Katrina’ (1919), which sold two million copies of sheet music in Europe. Although he had studied with great European masters of the piano, when he went to the USA (1924) he failed as a piano virtuoso. He took up a series of odd jobs, including prospecting for gold and boxing professionally, but by the mid-1930s he had launched his career as a composer for the musical theatre. Not until he teamed up with lyricist Alan Jay Lerner (1942), however, did he find his true talent; their first big success was Brigadoon (1947) and this was followed by such classic stage and film musical scores as My Fair Lady (1956), Gigi (1958), and Camelot (1960). This last led to their falling-out and they did not collaborate again until 1973, when they made a stage version of their film musical, Gigi. Their last collaboration was The Little Prince (1974), after which Loewe retired. |
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