William Max Schatzkamer

William Max Schatzkamer, pianist, conductor and educator, born August 17, 1916 in New York City to Isadore and Mary Fass Schatzkamer, died of congestive heart failure at his home in Olivette on September 12. He was preceded in death by his parents, siblings Sylvia Alpert and Sidney Schatzkamer and his son William Lawrence Schatzkamer. He was married to the late Mary Bray Schatzkamer and the late Laurel Esther Schatzkamer.

William Schatzkamer received his musical training at the Juilliard School of Music. From 1934 through 1940 he was a fellowship student in piano under Alexander Siloti, the celebrated Lisztian and teacher of Rachmaninoff. In 1941, Schatzkamer was chosen from among sixty pianists to play Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue at New York’s Lewisohn Stadium with a National Youth Administration Orchestra. He then began playing regular engagements with the Cleveland and other major American symphony orchestras.

From 1940 through 1946, Schatzkamer toured with singer and actor Paul Robeson and his accompanist Laurence Brown as guest piano solo artist. These travels have been memorialized in his soon to be published stories, Travels with Paul.

From 1948 through 1950, Schatzkamer made recital and concert tours of the United States, Canada and Mexico under the direction of Columbia Artists Management. During these years, he played a total of 175 concerts and recitals in all parts of North America, including three very successful recitals in New York’s Town Hall. Immediately after the first of these Town Hall recitals, he was signed to a recording contract by RCA Victor.

In 1951, he joined the faculty of the Music Department of Washington University in St. Louis. In 1956, he made his debut with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. He continued to teach and conduct at the University until his retirement from the faculty in 1987 as professor emeritus.

During the 1959 season of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra he played the first performance in St. Louis of Alexei Haieff's piano concerto, with Aaron Copland conducting. He also presented forty half-hour programs called Musical Mosaic, a television first in this area, on KMOX-TV between June 1958 and May 1959.

Schatzkamer was the founding conductor and musical director of the Gateway Festival Orchestra of St. Louis. He retired from that position in 2002. He also served as the conductor and music director of the Aristeia Ensemble, the Washington University Orchestra, the Northwest Plaza Orchestra, the Belleville Philharmonic Orchestra, and the University City Symphony. He inaugurated a bi-weekly concert series with the Plaza Frontenac Pops Orchestra and conducted the JCCA Symphony as well.

He is survived by his children Laura Leslie Schatzkamer, Mark Alexander Schatzkamer (Robin), Nina Beth Miller (Steve), Kyriena Laurel Schatzkamer, Helena Maura Bunnow (Jeremy), his grandchildren Maria Goldsmith (Bob), Benjamin Schatzkamer Scott, Dylan and Shiloh Schatzkamer, Alexander, Andrew and Austin Miller, Asher, Auden and Archer Bunnow and his great-grandchildren Michael and Daniel Goldsmith.

A memorial service will be held at Graham Chapel on the campus of Washington University, Saturday, November 10 at 9:30 am.