Director of the St. Louis Institute of Music, Missouri 1924‒43.

Career Summary

Robert Emmett Stuart was from at least 1924 associated with The Progressive Teachers College in St. Louis, Missouri. by 1927/28 he is listed as the College's Secretary and General Manager. The College was renamed the St. Louis Institute of Music c. 1929, and in 1937/38 Stuart is listed as its Educational Director. In 1940 he was the President of the Missouri Music Teachers Association. He is listed in the United States Educational Directory for 1941 and 1943 as the Director of the Institute. He retired in the latter year (local newspaper).

Stuart and the Moriz Violin

Stuart informed Arnold Schoenberg that he had a position open in composition at the St. Louis Institute of Music, and would like to appoint one of Schoenberg's own pupils. In January 1940 Schoenberg urged Schenker's closest friend Moriz Violin, who had emigrated from Vienna to San Francisco in May/June 1939, to apply for the position. Schoenberg wrote Stuart a letter in which, while listing many of his own American-based pupils, he urged him to appoint Violin as "the man whom I considered the most suitable." Violin submitted an application, but was rejected by Stuart in a letter of April 8. Behind the rejection is thought to have been Gottfried Galston, who had been Professor of Piano at the Institute since 1927, and who feared Violin as a rival.

Correspondence

One letter from Stuart to Violin, dated April 2, 1940, is preserved as OJ 70/38, [1]. Violin's application letter does not survive, but draft materials exist in OJ 70/1, [1]. There is also correspondence between Schoenberg and Violin in January‒April 1940 concerning Stuart and the job application (LC ASC 27/45, [17]‒[20], LC ASC 7/50, [8]‒[11], OJ 70/35, [7]). Additionally, one letter from Stuart to Schoenberg, and one from Schoenberg to Stuart, both survive, and are quoted in Auner (2003).

Sources

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