Hans Lange

Hans Lange (born February 17, 1884 in Istanbul; died August 13, 1960 in Albuquerque, New Mexico) was a German-American conductor and musician. He was a son of Paul Lange, who had been a lecturer for music at the American College for Girls and German High School Istanbul in the 1890s, and later was appointed the Sultan's director of music. Hans Lange himself was an alumnus of German High School Istanbul.

Lange was educated in Prague and other European cities. After assignments in several German cities, for example in Bielefeld, he entered the United States in 1925 with a German orchestra to give concerts. The orchestra was dissolved during the tour, and Lange had to re-start his career. In the 1930s he worked at the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, where he was assistant of Arturo Toscanini, and rehearsed almost all his performances. At that time he also worked on his own as a conductor: he recorded one of his Wagner concerts with the famous soprano Kirsten Flagstad for HMV Records.

In 1936–1943 he worked as Associate Conductor and later became Conductor (1943–46) of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. As he had not taken up US citizenship during the war, his contract with CSO was not extended in 1946. In 1950 he started to work with the Albuquerque Civic Symphony, less than two years after his predecessor Kurt Frederick had managed to bring the world premiere of Schoenbergs "A Survivor from Warsaw" to Albuquerque in November 1948. Lange transformed the ACS from an amateur ensemble into what is today known as New Mexico Symphony Orchestra (NMSO) and one of the leading professional orchestras in the United States.

He was a National Patron of Delta Omicron, an international professional music fraternity.

During his tenure in Chicago, Lange was one of the teachers and mentors of composer Leon Stein.

External links

• TIME, 25 November 1935
• Portrait photo
• Soundclip: Hans Lange conducting the CSO : Ludwig van Beethoven, Klavierkonzert Nr. 5 op. 73