Andrew McKinley
Encyclopedia
Andrew McKinley was an American opera
tic tenor
, violin
ist, arts administrator, music educator, and school administrator. Although he mainly performed in the United States, he had an active international singing career with major opera companies and symphony orchestras from the 1940s through the 1960s. His repertoire spanned a wide range, from leading tenor parts to character roles.
As a performer McKinley is best remembered for creating roles in the world premieres of two operas by Gian Carlo Menotti
: Nika Magadoff in the Pulitzer Prize
winning The Consul
(1950) and King Kaspar in the Peabody Award
winning Amahl and the Night Visitors
(1951). The latter opera was made by the NBC Opera Theatre
, and McKinley filmed several more operas with that organization during his career. He also taught violin at the Juilliard School of Music for almost four decades and in 1968 founded the Usdan Center for the Creative and Performing Arts in Wheatley Heights, Long Island.
(now the Juilliard School) as a violin major in 1922. He later joined the violin faculty of the school's pre-college division in the early 1930s; remaining as an instructor at Juilliard until 1970. While a student at Juilliard he began performing as a violinist, mainly in orchestras and chamber ensembles. He continued to play the violin for the rest of his life.
Although his performance career started and finished as a violinist, McKinley became more well known to audiences internationally for his work as a singer. He began his singing career as a concert singer in the United States, but had his first major successes when he branched out into opera in the 1940s. He appeared with several leading opera house
s in both the United States and Europe during his career, including the Glyndebourne Festival Opera
where he was seen as Malcolm in Giuseppe Verdi
's Macbeth
in 1947.
In 1946 McKinley made his debut with the Boston Symphony Orchestra
as the tenor soloist for performances of Giuseppe Verdi
's Messa da Requiem with Frances Yeend
as the soprano soloist. He later sang Verdi's Requiem with Yeend again for his debut performance with the Philadelphia Orchestra
in 1951 under conductor Eugene Ormandy
. Also in 1946, he sang in radio broadcasts with the NBC Symphony Orchestra
under conductor Arturo Toscanini
. In 1946-1947 he was committed to the Philadelphia La Scala Opera Company
; making his debut with the company as Turiddu in Cavalleria rusticana
with Elda Ercole and Herva Nelli
alternating in the role of Santuzza. In 1950 he returned to Philadelphia to create the role of Nika Magadoff in the world premiere of Gian Carlo Menotti
's The Consul
, and continued with the production when it moved to Broadway
later that year. He also sang the part at La Scala
in Milan in 1951.
In 1952 McKinley made his first appearance with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra
as the tenor soloist in Ludwig van Beethoven
's Symphony No. 9
at the Ravinia Festival with fellow soloists Eileen Farrell
, Jane Hobson, and Mack Harrell
. That same year he was the tenor soloist in Hector Berlioz
's Requiem
with conductor Charles Munch and the Boston Symphony Orchestra at the Tanglewood Festival. In 1953 he portrayed Prince Shuisky to George London
's Boris Godunov
at the Metropolitan Opera
. That same year he sang the role of Nika Magadoff again with the Philadelphia Orchestra.
In 1954 McKinley sang in the very first season of the Lyric Opera of Chicago
; appearing as Grumio in Vittorio Giannini
's The Taming of the Shrew. He also sang in concert performances with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
that year; including singing Prince Shuisky to the Boris of Jerome Hines
and the title part in Berlioz's La damnation de Faust. He returned to Baltimore in 1956 to sing the role of Camille in Franz Lehár
's The Merry Widow
. In 1957 he was the tenor soloist in the world premiere of Cecil Effinger
's oratorio
The Invisible Fire at the Hoch Auditorium
with the Kansas City Philharmonic under conductor Thor Johnson
.
to compose an opera for television which was to be performed by the newly created NBC Opera Theatre
(NBCOT). What resulted was the highly successful Christmas opera Amahl and the Night Visitors
which was premiered on Christmas Eve
of 1951 in a national broadcast to millions. For this production, Menotti enlisted the forces of many of the singers from The Consul; including McKinley who was cast in the role of King Kaspar. Menotti's story portrayed Kaspar as being hard of hearing and once joked that he had written it so because his brother "had always believed one of the kings was deaf since he never got all the presents he’d asked for". McKinley continued to play Kaspar, along with the other original adult cast members, for annual live television broadcasts up through 1964. They also gave annual national tours of Amahl, performing with symphony orchestras in concerts throughout the United States.
Amahl and the Night Visitors was a triumph for the NBC Opera Theatre, and McKinley was soon engaged by NBC to perform in several other opera broadcasts on the television program NBC Television Opera Theatre. He sang in two more world premieres for the NBCOT; the roles of Anuchkin in Bohuslav Martinů
's The Marriage
(1953) and "The Voice of the Letterbox" in Lukas Foss
' Griffelkin
(1955). Some of the other roles he filmed with the company included Captain Vere in Benjamin Britten
's Billy Budd
(1952), Herodes in Richard Strauss
' Salome
(1954), Monostatos in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
's The Magic Flute
(1956), and Prince Shuisky in Modest Mussorgsky
's Boris Godunov
(1957).
in Manhattan. He was married to the concert pianist and academic Lily Miki McKinley.
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
tic tenor
Tenor
The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2...
, violin
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
ist, arts administrator, music educator, and school administrator. Although he mainly performed in the United States, he had an active international singing career with major opera companies and symphony orchestras from the 1940s through the 1960s. His repertoire spanned a wide range, from leading tenor parts to character roles.
As a performer McKinley is best remembered for creating roles in the world premieres of two operas by Gian Carlo Menotti
Gian Carlo Menotti
Gian Carlo Menotti was an Italian-American composer and librettist. Although he often referred to himself as an American composer, he kept his Italian citizenship. He wrote the classic Christmas opera, Amahl and the Night Visitors, among about two dozen other operas intended to appeal to popular...
: Nika Magadoff in the Pulitzer Prize
Pulitzer Prize for Music
The Pulitzer Prize for Music was first awarded in 1943. Joseph Pulitzer did not call for such a prize in his will, but had arranged for a music scholarship to be awarded each year...
winning The Consul
The Consul
The Consul is an opera in three acts with music and libretto by Gian Carlo Menotti, his first full-length opera. Its first performance was on March 1, 1950, at the Shubert Theatre in Philadelphia with Patricia Neway as the lead heroine Magda Sorel, Gloria Lane as the secretary of the consulate,...
(1950) and King Kaspar in the Peabody Award
Peabody Award
The George Foster Peabody Awards recognize distinguished and meritorious public service by radio and television stations, networks, producing organizations and individuals. In 1939, the National Association of Broadcasters formed a committee to recognize outstanding achievement in radio broadcasting...
winning Amahl and the Night Visitors
Amahl and the Night Visitors
Amahl and the Night Visitors is an opera in one act by Gian Carlo Menotti with an original English libretto by the composer. It was commissioned by NBC and first performed by the NBC Opera Theatre on December 24, 1951, in New York City at NBC studio 8H in Rockefeller Center, where it was broadcast...
(1951). The latter opera was made by the NBC Opera Theatre
NBC Opera Theatre
The NBC Opera Theatre was an American opera company operated by the National Broadcasting Company from 1949 to 1964. The company was established specifically for the purpose of filming both established and new operas for television...
, and McKinley filmed several more operas with that organization during his career. He also taught violin at the Juilliard School of Music for almost four decades and in 1968 founded the Usdan Center for the Creative and Performing Arts in Wheatley Heights, Long Island.
Early life and career
Born in Pittsburgh, McKinley entered the Institute of Musical ArtJuilliard School
The Juilliard School, located at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City, United States, is a performing arts conservatory which was established in 1905...
(now the Juilliard School) as a violin major in 1922. He later joined the violin faculty of the school's pre-college division in the early 1930s; remaining as an instructor at Juilliard until 1970. While a student at Juilliard he began performing as a violinist, mainly in orchestras and chamber ensembles. He continued to play the violin for the rest of his life.
Although his performance career started and finished as a violinist, McKinley became more well known to audiences internationally for his work as a singer. He began his singing career as a concert singer in the United States, but had his first major successes when he branched out into opera in the 1940s. He appeared with several leading opera house
Opera house
An opera house is a theatre building used for opera performances that consists of a stage, an orchestra pit, audience seating, and backstage facilities for costumes and set building...
s in both the United States and Europe during his career, including the Glyndebourne Festival Opera
Glyndebourne Festival Opera
Glyndebourne Festival Opera is an English opera festival held at Glyndebourne, an English country house near Lewes, in East Sussex, England.-History:...
where he was seen as Malcolm in Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was an Italian Romantic composer, mainly of opera. He was one of the most influential composers of the 19th century...
's Macbeth
Macbeth (opera)
Macbeth is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi, with an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave and additions by Andrea Maffei, based on Shakespeare's play of the same name...
in 1947.
In 1946 McKinley made his debut with the Boston Symphony Orchestra
Boston Symphony Orchestra
The Boston Symphony Orchestra is an orchestra based in Boston, Massachusetts. It is one of the five American orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five". Founded in 1881, the BSO plays most of its concerts at Boston's Symphony Hall and in the summer performs at the Tanglewood Music Center...
as the tenor soloist for performances of Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was an Italian Romantic composer, mainly of opera. He was one of the most influential composers of the 19th century...
's Messa da Requiem with Frances Yeend
Frances Yeend
Frances Yeend was an American classical soprano who had an active international career as a concert and opera singer during the 1940s through the 1960s...
as the soprano soloist. He later sang Verdi's Requiem with Yeend again for his debut performance with the Philadelphia Orchestra
Philadelphia Orchestra
The Philadelphia Orchestra is a symphony orchestra based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the United States. One of the "Big Five" American orchestras, it was founded in 1900...
in 1951 under conductor Eugene Ormandy
Eugene Ormandy
Eugene Ormandy was a Hungarian-born conductor and violinist.-Early life:Born Jenő Blau in Budapest, Hungary, Ormandy began studying violin at the Royal National Hungarian Academy of Music at the age of five...
. Also in 1946, he sang in radio broadcasts with the NBC Symphony Orchestra
NBC Symphony Orchestra
The NBC Symphony Orchestra was a radio orchestra established by David Sarnoff of the National Broadcasting Company especially for conductor Arturo Toscanini...
under conductor Arturo Toscanini
Arturo Toscanini
Arturo Toscanini was an Italian conductor. One of the most acclaimed musicians of the late 19th and 20th century, he was renowned for his intensity, his perfectionism, his ear for orchestral detail and sonority, and his photographic memory...
. In 1946-1947 he was committed to the Philadelphia La Scala Opera Company
Philadelphia La Scala Opera Company
The Philadelphia La Scala Opera Company was an American opera company located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania that was actively performing at the Academy of Music between 1925 and 1954...
; making his debut with the company as Turiddu in Cavalleria rusticana
Cavalleria rusticana
Cavalleria rusticana is an opera in one act by Pietro Mascagni to an Italian libretto by Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti and Guido Menasci, adapted from a play written by Giovanni Verga based on his short story. Considered one of the classic verismo operas, it premiered on May 17, 1890 at the Teatro...
with Elda Ercole and Herva Nelli
Herva Nelli
Herva Nelli was an Italian-born operatic soprano.-Biography:Named after the French socialist Gustave Hervé, she was born in Florence, where she attended a convent school...
alternating in the role of Santuzza. In 1950 he returned to Philadelphia to create the role of Nika Magadoff in the world premiere of Gian Carlo Menotti
Gian Carlo Menotti
Gian Carlo Menotti was an Italian-American composer and librettist. Although he often referred to himself as an American composer, he kept his Italian citizenship. He wrote the classic Christmas opera, Amahl and the Night Visitors, among about two dozen other operas intended to appeal to popular...
's The Consul
The Consul
The Consul is an opera in three acts with music and libretto by Gian Carlo Menotti, his first full-length opera. Its first performance was on March 1, 1950, at the Shubert Theatre in Philadelphia with Patricia Neway as the lead heroine Magda Sorel, Gloria Lane as the secretary of the consulate,...
, and continued with the production when it moved to Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
later that year. He also sang the part at La Scala
La Scala
La Scala , is a world renowned opera house in Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was originally known as the New Royal-Ducal Theatre at La Scala...
in Milan in 1951.
In 1952 McKinley made his first appearance with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Chicago, Illinois. It is one of the five American orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five". Founded in 1891, the Symphony makes its home at Orchestra Hall in Chicago and plays a summer season at the Ravinia Festival...
as the tenor soloist in Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...
's Symphony No. 9
Symphony No. 9 (Beethoven)
The Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125, is the final complete symphony of Ludwig van Beethoven. Completed in 1824, the symphony is one of the best known works of the Western classical repertoire, and has been adapted for use as the European Anthem...
at the Ravinia Festival with fellow soloists Eileen Farrell
Eileen Farrell
Eileen Farrell was an American soprano who had a nearly 60 year long career performing both classical and popular music in concerts, theatres, on radio and television, and on disc. While she was active as an opera singer, her concert engagements far outnumbered her theatrical appearances...
, Jane Hobson, and Mack Harrell
Mack Harrell
Mack Harrell was an American baritone who was regarded as one of the greatest concert singers of his generation....
. That same year he was the tenor soloist in Hector Berlioz
Hector Berlioz
Hector Berlioz was a French Romantic composer, best known for his compositions Symphonie fantastique and Grande messe des morts . Berlioz made significant contributions to the modern orchestra with his Treatise on Instrumentation. He specified huge orchestral forces for some of his works; as a...
's Requiem
Requiem (Berlioz)
The Grande Messe des morts, Op. 5 by Hector Berlioz was composed in 1837. The Grande Messe des Morts is one of Berlioz's best-known works, with a tremendous orchestration of woodwind and brass instruments, including four antiphonal offstage brass ensembles placed at the corners of the concert stage...
with conductor Charles Munch and the Boston Symphony Orchestra at the Tanglewood Festival. In 1953 he portrayed Prince Shuisky to George London
George London
George London may be:*George London , Canadian operatic bass-baritone*George London *Sir George Ernest London, of the Newfoundland Commission of Government...
's Boris Godunov
Boris Godunov (opera)
Boris Godunov is an opera by Modest Mussorgsky . The work was composed between 1868 and 1873 in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It is Mussorgsky's only completed opera and is considered his masterpiece. Its subjects are the Russian ruler Boris Godunov, who reigned as Tsar during the Time of Troubles,...
at the Metropolitan Opera
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera is an opera company, located in New York City. Originally founded in 1880, the company gave its first performance on October 22, 1883. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager...
. That same year he sang the role of Nika Magadoff again with the Philadelphia Orchestra.
In 1954 McKinley sang in the very first season of the Lyric Opera of Chicago
Lyric Opera of Chicago
Lyric Opera of Chicago is one of the leading opera companies in the United States. It was founded in Chicago in 1952, under the name 'Lyric Theatre of Chicago' by Carol Fox, Nicolà Rescigno and Lawrence Kelly, with a season that included Maria Callas's American debut in Norma...
; appearing as Grumio in Vittorio Giannini
Vittorio Giannini
Vittorio Giannini was a neoromantic American composer of operas, songs, symphonies, and band works.-Life and work:...
's The Taming of the Shrew. He also sang in concert performances with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra is a professional American symphony orchestra based in Baltimore, Maryland.In September 2007, Maestra Marin Alsop led her inaugural concerts as the Orchestra’s twelfth music director, making her the first woman to head a major American orchestra.The BSO Board...
that year; including singing Prince Shuisky to the Boris of Jerome Hines
Jerome Hines
The American Jerome A. Hines was a basso opera singer who performed at the Metropolitan Opera from 1946 to 1987...
and the title part in Berlioz's La damnation de Faust. He returned to Baltimore in 1956 to sing the role of Camille in Franz Lehár
Franz Lehár
Franz Lehár was an Austrian-Hungarian composer. He is mainly known for his operettas of which the most successful and best known is The Merry Widow .-Biography:...
's The Merry Widow
The Merry Widow
The Merry Widow is an operetta by the Austro–Hungarian composer Franz Lehár. The librettists, Viktor Léon and Leo Stein, based the story – concerning a rich widow, and her countrymen's attempt to keep her money in the principality by finding her the right husband – on an 1861 comedy play,...
. In 1957 he was the tenor soloist in the world premiere of Cecil Effinger
Cecil Effinger
Cecil Effinger was an American composer, oboist, and inventor.-Life:Effinger was born in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and resided in that state for most of his life...
's oratorio
Oratorio
An oratorio is a large musical composition including an orchestra, a choir, and soloists. Like an opera, an oratorio includes the use of a choir, soloists, an ensemble, various distinguishable characters, and arias...
The Invisible Fire at the Hoch Auditorium
Hoch Auditorium
Hoch Auditorium was a 3,500-seat multi-purpose arena in Lawrence, Kansas. It opened in 1927. It was home to the University of Kansas Jayhawks basketball teams until Allen Fieldhouse opened in 1955....
with the Kansas City Philharmonic under conductor Thor Johnson
Thor Johnson
Thor Martin Johnson was an American conductor. He was born in Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin. He studied at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he was president of the Alpha Rho chapter of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia Fraternity. He was the first recipient of the fraternity's national...
.
Amahl and other work for the NBC Opera Theatre
After the critical success of The Consul, Menotti was invited by NBCNBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
to compose an opera for television which was to be performed by the newly created NBC Opera Theatre
NBC Opera Theatre
The NBC Opera Theatre was an American opera company operated by the National Broadcasting Company from 1949 to 1964. The company was established specifically for the purpose of filming both established and new operas for television...
(NBCOT). What resulted was the highly successful Christmas opera Amahl and the Night Visitors
Amahl and the Night Visitors
Amahl and the Night Visitors is an opera in one act by Gian Carlo Menotti with an original English libretto by the composer. It was commissioned by NBC and first performed by the NBC Opera Theatre on December 24, 1951, in New York City at NBC studio 8H in Rockefeller Center, where it was broadcast...
which was premiered on Christmas Eve
Christmas Eve
Christmas Eve refers to the evening or entire day preceding Christmas Day, a widely celebrated festival commemorating the birth of Jesus of Nazareth that takes place on December 25...
of 1951 in a national broadcast to millions. For this production, Menotti enlisted the forces of many of the singers from The Consul; including McKinley who was cast in the role of King Kaspar. Menotti's story portrayed Kaspar as being hard of hearing and once joked that he had written it so because his brother "had always believed one of the kings was deaf since he never got all the presents he’d asked for". McKinley continued to play Kaspar, along with the other original adult cast members, for annual live television broadcasts up through 1964. They also gave annual national tours of Amahl, performing with symphony orchestras in concerts throughout the United States.
Amahl and the Night Visitors was a triumph for the NBC Opera Theatre, and McKinley was soon engaged by NBC to perform in several other opera broadcasts on the television program NBC Television Opera Theatre. He sang in two more world premieres for the NBCOT; the roles of Anuchkin in Bohuslav Martinů
Bohuslav Martinu
Bohuslav Martinů was a prolific Czech composer of modern classical music. He was of Czech and Rumanian ancestry. Martinů wrote six symphonies, 15 operas, 14 ballet scores and a large body of orchestral, chamber, vocal and instrumental works. Martinů became a violinist in the Czech Philharmonic...
's The Marriage
The Marriage (opera)
The Marriage is a comic opera in 2 acts by Bohuslav Martinů, to the composer's own libretto, after the play of the same name by Nikolai Gogol. The opera was commissioned for television by the NBC, and the NBC Opera Theatre performed the work's world premiere on their television program NBC TV Opera...
(1953) and "The Voice of the Letterbox" in Lukas Foss
Lukas Foss
Lukas Foss was a German-born American composer, conductor, and pianist.-Music career:He was born Lukas Fuchs in Berlin, Germany in 1922. His father was the philosopher and scholar Martin Fuchs...
' Griffelkin
Griffelkin
Griffelkin is an opera by Lukas Foss with a libretto by Alastair Reid. The opera was first performed on November 6, 1955, in a nationwide telecast by the NBC Opera Theatre.-Background:...
(1955). Some of the other roles he filmed with the company included Captain Vere in Benjamin Britten
Benjamin Britten
Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten, OM CH was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He showed talent from an early age, and first came to public attention with the a cappella choral work A Boy Was Born in 1934. With the premiere of his opera Peter Grimes in 1945, he leapt to...
's Billy Budd
Billy Budd (opera)
Billy Budd is an opera by Benjamin Britten, from a libretto by E. M. Forster and Eric Crozier, was first performed at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London on 1 December 1951. It is based on the short novel Billy Budd by Herman Melville....
(1952), Herodes in Richard Strauss
Richard Strauss
Richard Georg Strauss was a leading German composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras. He is known for his operas, which include Der Rosenkavalier and Salome; his Lieder, especially his Four Last Songs; and his tone poems and orchestral works, such as Death and Transfiguration, Till...
' Salome
Salome (opera)
Salome is an opera in one act by Richard Strauss to a German libretto by the composer, based on Hedwig Lachmann’s German translation of the French play Salomé by Oscar Wilde. Strauss dedicated the opera to his friend Sir Edgar Speyer....
(1954), Monostatos in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
's The Magic Flute
The Magic Flute
The Magic Flute is an opera in two acts composed in 1791 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. The work is in the form of a Singspiel, a popular form that included both singing and spoken dialogue....
(1956), and Prince Shuisky in Modest Mussorgsky
Modest Mussorgsky
Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky was a Russian composer, one of the group known as 'The Five'. He was an innovator of Russian music in the romantic period...
's Boris Godunov
Boris Godunov (opera)
Boris Godunov is an opera by Modest Mussorgsky . The work was composed between 1868 and 1873 in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It is Mussorgsky's only completed opera and is considered his masterpiece. Its subjects are the Russian ruler Boris Godunov, who reigned as Tsar during the Time of Troubles,...
(1957).
Later life and career as an educator
After retiring from his singing career in the mid 1960s, McKinley continued to perform occasionally as an ensemble player on the violin. In 1958 he resigned from his post as director of the Bronx House Music School (a position he had held since 1923). That same year he founded the Suzanne and Nathaniel Usdan Center for the Creative and Performing Arts, a summer music camp in Wheatley Heights, Long Island. He remained involved with the camp up into the latter years of his life. He notably helped establish a 40-concert summer festival sponsored by the Center. He died at the age of 92 at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital CenterSt. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center
St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center, an academic affiliate of Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, is a 1,076-bed, full-service community and tertiary care hospital serving New York City’s Midtown West, Upper West Side and parts of Harlem....
in Manhattan. He was married to the concert pianist and academic Lily Miki McKinley.