Frederik Prausnitz, 84; Conductor Promoted Classical Music
Frederik Prausnitz, 84, a conductor, author and teacher who promoted contemporary classical music, died Nov. 12 at his home in Lewes, Del. The cause of death was not announced.
Prausnitz was born in Cologne, Germany. In the late 1930s, his parents sent him to Philadelphia to avoid compulsory service in the German army.
Prausnitz attended the Juilliard School from 1941 to 1945 and worked there in a variety of administrative, teaching and conducting posts through 1961.
After a critically successful conducting stint with the New England Conservatory’s symphony orchestra, Prausnitz was named director of the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra in 1971.
Though reviewers applauded his contemporary programming at Syracuse, the symphony’s board of directors and many of the orchestra’s financial backers did not. After much public debate, he was bought out of his contract in 1974.
From 1976 to 1997, he served as musical director of the Peabody Conservatory at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.
His infrequent recordings included works by Carl Ruggles, William Walton, Elliot Carter and Roger Sessions.
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