Josiah Zuro
| Josiah Zuro | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born | 27 November 1887 Bialystok, Russia |
| Died |
October 18, 1930 (aged 42) La Jolla, California, U.S. |
| Nationality | US |
| Occupation | pianist, conductor |
| Known for | movie music |
Josiah Zuro (27 November 1887, in Bialystok – October 18, 1930, in La Jolla, California) was a pianist, conductor and film composer.
Josiah Zuro was the son of Louis Zuro, a Russian immigrant who became a producer of opera and Josiah's collaborator, and Leah Zuro. Josiah studied music at the conservatory in Odessa before immigrating to the US in April 1906.
Zuro directed orchestras and opera companies in New York and Boston. He was assistant conductor at the Manhattan Opera House in Oscar Hammerstein I's company. He was also musical director at several New York theatres. He directed grand opera in San Francisco in 1915 while the World's Fair was being held there.
Zuro was widely known in New York for his efforts to bring classical music to the public at nominal charge and for his aid to young American musicians who found it difficult to get a hearing in public. For several seasons he conducted free Sunday concerts at New York theatres, organizing in 1924 the Sunday Symphony Society. Zuro himself directed an orchestra of sixty-four musicians and rehearsed the soloists who were to appear each week. His idea of giving the concerts on Sunday was to provide a closer tie between music and religion, and each performance was accompanied by a speech by some person prominent in public life, usually a minister.
In 1924 John Haynes Holmes characterized the Sunday performances as a "ministry of music," adding that "this service, religious in character, rises to a plane of dignity and beauty which makes musicians priests of the loveliest of arts." Zuro also organized a New York opera company of his own, known as the Zuro Opera Company, and made several tours. In the summer of 1925 he managed a free municipal opera project, producing three open-air operas in Ebbets Field, Brooklyn, before large crowds.
In the 1920s, Zuro moved to Hollywood to compose for Paramount Pictures and Pathé Studios movies, among them The Covered Wagon (1923), The King of Kings (1927), The Jazz Age (1929), High Voltage (1929), and Holiday (1930). He was chosen in 1929 to supervise the movie production of seven grand operas.
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