Karl Ulrich Schnabel

Karl Ulrich Schnabel (August 6, 1909 – August 27, 2001) was an Austrian pianist, and the son of pianist Artur Schnabel and operatic contralto and lieder singer Therese Behr.

Karl Schnabel was born in Berlin on August 6, 1909. He began studying piano at the age of five. From 1922–1926 he studied at the Berlin Hochschule für Musik with Leonid Kreutzer and Paul Juon. He had a distinguished career as a master piano teacher and as an international performer.

Schnabel left Berlin in 1933 when Adolf Hitler came to power, settling briefly at Lake Como; he emigrated to the United States in 1939, shortly before World War II. In the same year he married the American pianist Helen Fogel (1911–74), with whom he played a large repertory of piano duets. They had a daughter, Ann. During World War II he interrupted his musical career to do war work as head of an electronic laboratory in Massachusetts.

Schnabel's extra-musical interests included rock-climbing and photography. For several years, he was active producing motion pictures; in 1932, he was producer, director and cinematographer of a feature-length film based on a German fairy tale. As a young man, he participated in table tennis tournaments. During this time, Karl Ulrich Schnabel also maintained an elaborate miniature electric train set, complete with timetables. Family friend Paul Hindemith assisted in running the trains.

Karl Ulrich Schnabel died in Danbury, Connecticut, on August 27, 2001. He was buried in the family plot in Schwyz, Switzerland, adjoining his parents and wife. Karl Ulrich Schnabel's papers are held at the Music Archive of the Akademie der Künste in Berlin. His daughter Ann Schnabel Mottier currently manages the Schnabel Music Foundation, together with her husband Francois Mottier.

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