Emmy Rubensohn (1884–1961) was music patron, concert manager, salonnière, and writer of letters. She was born in Leipzig in 1884 into the Jewish Frank family, who owned a textile factory there. Even as a young girl, she was a passionate concertgoer who was particularly drawn to the Gewandhaus concerts, where she eagerly collected the autograph of admired artists. In 1907, she married Ernst Rubensohn and moved to Kassel to be with him. Here, the couple’s cosmopolitan and hospitable manner turned their house into a cultural meeting place. They were visited, among others, by Wilhelm Furtwängler, as well as the painter Oskar Kokoschka. In 1925, the Rubensohns invited Austrian composer Ernst Krenek to stay in their villa free of charge. The young man thanked them with a special gift, the opera “Jonny spielt auf”, which he completed while still living under his hosts’ roof. This brought Emmy Rubensohn back to Leipzig, as her protégé’s opus was premiered here in 1927 with the Gewandhausorchester – an overnight global success, as it turned out. After the National Socialists came to power, Emmy founded the Jüdische Kulturbund Kassel, for which she organized dozens of concerts, such as with conductor Joseph Rosenstock or pianist Grete Sultan. But it was only after the pogroms of 1938 that the couple decided to emigrate. In 1940, they took the risk and fled to Shanghai. It was not until 1947 that the two reached their preferred destination, the USA and New York. After Ernst’s death in 1951, Emmy succeeded in building up a new circle of friends, including violinist Roman Totenberg, conductor Dimitri Mitropoulos, and Alma Mahler-Werfel. A key foundation for her biographical account is Emmy Rubensohn’s Gästebuch.weiterlesen