User:Eric Stone Miller/Fritz Berens

Fritz Berens (1907-2010) Musician, Conductor, Composer, Pianist, Accompanist, Vocal Coach, Mentor, Educator ...

Fritz Berens was born in Vienna, Austria in 1907 to Alfred and Pauline Low-Beer. He opted to change his original last name to "Berens" when he became a citizen of the United States. Fritz Berens is of no immediate relation to Johann Hermann Berens (1826-1880) of piano pedagogy/teaching fame.

Fritz Berens began studying piano at age six and music theory/composition at age sixteen. He continued his upper level of musical training (including conducting) at the Vienna Conservatory. Due to the political climate in Europe at the time, Berens immigrated to the U.S. in 1939. Prior to his coming to the States, he held a number of posts in opera houses around Europe as an: arranger, conductor, guest music director, staff accompanist, vocal coach, rehearsal pianist, etc.

Within a year of his arrival in the U.S., he took a position with the San Francisco Opera and the San Francisco Ballet. As conductor and musical director of the San Francisco Ballet he was largely responsible for staging some of the United States' first complete productions of such venerable works as Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake and The Nutcracker. Besides his many duties with the Ballet as arranger, pianist and conductor, he orchestrated or re-orchestrated a large number of piece to make them workable for the company and the stage. In 1943 he compiled, arranged, orchestrated and conducted a production of The Walz King, an operetta based on the life of Johann Strauss, Jr., which was performed in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Chicago.

During the San Francisco years, he also served as the Music Director for the East Bay Opera League and founded the San Francisco Rehearsal Orchestra.

In 1946 Fritz Berens married Lois Treadwell (1918-1981). She was a company dancer and frequent soloist of the San Francisco Ballet.

The whirlwind of musical activity continued when, in 1948, he became the conductor of the Sacramento Symphony, a position he was to hold for sixteen years. Under his direction and leadership the Sacramento Symphony became an accomplished and well-respected ensemble. Berens founded the Northern California Junior Symphony; began a series of Symphony Concerts for Young People; created a Little Symphony (to perform smaller pieces written for chamber orchestra; and produced a weekly radio program. For four years during his time in Sacramento, he also conducted the Stockton Symphony and made guest appearances with other orchestras.  Berens returned to his native Vienna in 1961 and 1963 to appear as guest conductor with the Niederosterreichisches ("Lower Austrian") Tonkunstler Orchestra.

In 1966, Berens took a position on the faculty of Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas. While there he conducted the student orchestra, taught conducting and orchestration, staged numerous opera productions, and was a guest conductor of the Fort Worth Ballet Association. After retiring from Texas Christian University in 1973 he pursued composition and was an active vocal coach, accompanist and private piano instructor.

Although only one composition of his remains in print (a Sonata for Bassoon & Piano published by Southern Music Company in San Antonio, Texas), Berens left behind a large number of works for almost all traditional instruments and instrumentations including: ballets, large symphonic works, choral pieces, chamber music and well over two-hundred songs in English and German.

These works are in the process of being simultaneously preserved and prepared for publication and performance by Berens' daughter Beverly who lives and works in Fort Worth, Texas.