Ernest Bloch

Ernest Bloch (July 24, 1880–July 15, 1959) was a Swiss-born American composer whose symphonic, chamber, and choral works drew on Hebrew melodic contours, late-Romantic harmony, and the chromatic intensity of his teacher Eugène Ysaÿe. His 1916 rhapsody Schelomo for cello and orchestra remains a staple of the cello repertoire.

Born in Geneva to clockmaker Maurice Bloch and Sophie Brunschwig, he studied violin with Louis Rey and Jaques-Dalcroze in Geneva, then composition with Ivan Knorr at the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt and Ludwig Thuille in Munich. He returned to Geneva in 1904 to manage his father's shop while composing the opera Macbeth, premiered at the Paris Opéra-Comique in 1910.

Bloch arrived in New York in 1916 with the Maud Allan dance company; the tour collapsed but his First String Quartet, premiered by the Flonzaley Quartet, brought commissions. He was the founding director of the Cleveland Institute of Music from 1920 to 1925 and led the San Francisco Conservatory from 1925 to 1930. American citizenship followed in 1924.

His mature output—the Israel Symphony, Three Jewish Poems, the Sacred Service (1933), the Violin Concerto (1938), and five string quartets—balanced what he called the "Jewish cycle" with neoclassical and abstract works. He spent his final two decades in Agate Beach, Oregon, teaching summers at Berkeley and at Mills College. He died of cancer in Portland aged 78.

The name Ernest comes from the Old High German Ernust, meaning "serious" or "resolute," passed into English through the Norman court. He signed scores and letters with it in French, German, and English throughout his career.