Josef Labor

Josef Labor (29 June 1842 – 26 April 1924) was an Austrian pianist, organist, and composer of the late Romantic era. Labor was an influential music teacher. As a friend of some key figures in Vienna, his importance was enhanced.

Labor was born in the town of Hořovice in Bohemia to Josef Labor, an administrator of ironworks, and his wife Josefa Wallner, coming from a doctors-family. At the age of three, he was left blind due to contracting smallpox. He attended the Institute for the Blind in Vienna and the Konservatorium der Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde (Conservatory of the Society of Friends of Music) where he studied composition with Bruckner’s teacher, Simon Sechter, and piano with Eduard Pickhert.

He toured Europe as a pianist and, in the process, formed a lasting friendship with King Georg V of Hanover, who was also blind. Georg named him Royal Chamber Pianist in 1865. The following year, the two men settled in Vienna, where Labor began organ lessons and became a teacher, while continuing to compose and perform.

In 1904, Labor received the title Kaiserlich und Königlich Hoforganist (Royal and Imperial Court Organist) and is today best known for his organ works. Labor took a serious interest in early music and wrote continuo elaborations for Heinrich Biber’s sonatas.

Labor taught many notable musical personalities including Alma Schindler (who married Gustav Mahler and others), Paul Wittgenstein and Arnold Schoenberg. Alma Schindler studied with Labor for 6 years, beginning when she was 14, and her diaries contain numerous references to her esteemed teacher.

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