Adele T. Katz

Who was Adele T. Katz?

Adele Terese Katz was a music teacher and music theorist, and author. She was the first person to publish English-language writings about Schenkerian analysis.

Katz was born in San Francisco, California to Emanuel Katz, who worked in advertising, and Hanna Gunst Katz, both Jewish of German descent. She had one brother, Sidney, who followed his father in advertising. By 1910, Sidney and his father were living in Chicago, while Adele and her mother were living at 308 McDonough Street in Brooklyn, New York. By that time she was already teaching music.

From 1896 to 1907, she attended the Packer Collegiate Institute where she studied harmony with Raymond Huntington Woodman and violin with Henry Schradieck. She also studied theory and composition with Alfredo Casella, Gena Branscombe and Mortimer Wilson. In 1927, she moved to 277 West End Avenue in Manhattan, where she lived until her death in 1979.

From 1928 through 1935, she was a student at the David Mannes Music School, where she studied with David Mannes and Hans Weisse. For a single season, she was also a student at the Curtis Institute where she studied composition with Rosario Scalero.