Cellist Stefan Koch and pianist Robert Conway are presenting the first U.S. performances of works by renowned Austrian composer Richard Stöhr (1874-1967). They will make a stop at Northern Michigan University for a performance and multimedia lecture at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 17, in Reynolds Recital Hall. Admission is free. 

Stöhr was one of the many German Jewish musicians who lived through the most turbulent decades of the 20th century. He was professor of composition at the Vienna Conservatory in the 1930s. Forced from his position, he emigrated to the United States in 1938 and taught and composed here until his death. Stöhr worked at the Curtis Institute, the Vermont Conservatory and St. Michael’s College. His students included Leonard Bernstein, Herbert von Karajan and Rudolf Serkin. 

Koch received his musical training at Temple University and currently resides in Ann Arbor. He performs regularly with many orchestras in the region and spends summers at the Utah Festival Opera and Musical Theatre in Logan. Conway is a music professor and director of piano at Wayne State University. He has performed regularly as orchestral keyboardist with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and has served internationally as an artistic ambassador for the U.S. Information Agency and as cultural envoy for the Department of State to Jamaica and Azerbaijan. 

The concert is sponsored by the NMU Music Department, with support from Temple Beth Sholom, L’Dor v’Dor  and the Jewish Women’s Foundation of Metropolitan Detroit.