At the age of seven, New York City-born Nathaniel Shilkret
(1889Â1982) was the clarinet soloist for the New York Boys Orchestra on its
tour of the United States, and in his teen years he played in several of New
York's most popular orchestras and bands, including the Russian Symphony Orchestra,
Victor Herbert's orchestra, and John Phillip Sousa's Grand Concert BandÂas well
as under both Vassily Safanov and Gustav Mahler in the New York Philharmonic
Society (later the New York Philharmonic). For many years Shilkret's most prominent
association was with the Victor Talking Machine Company (later RCA Victor),
where, as "director of light music," he conducted numerous recordings
with his Victor Salon Orchestra and other ensembles. Many of those recordingsÂeither
in a popular or what was then called light classical veinÂbecame best-selling
hit records. Shilkret conducted for thousands of network radio broadcasts during
those years, and recorded for many labels, such as Brunswick, Columbia, Edison,
and Okeh. Some of his recordings also featured him as an instrumental soloist,
playing clarinet, piano, organ, celeste, chimes, and trumpetÂand even whistling.
Shilkret wrote a number of popular songs, of which the best-known and most commercially
successful was "The Lonesome Road." It was sung in the initial film
version of Show Boat in 1929 and has been recorded in vocal and instrumental
versions by more than 100 popular performers, including the Andrews Sisters
(on the Paul Whiteman radio show), Louis Armstrong, Benny Goodman, Bing Crosby,
Sammy Davis Jr., Peggy Lee, Frank Sinatra, Tommy Dorsey, Earl Hines, Al Hirt,
Paul Robeson, and Helen Traubel. Shilkret conducted the 1927 electrical recording
of George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue (credited to Paul Whiteman); and
he was selected to conduct the initial broadcast and recording of Gershwin's
An American in ParisÂwhich he also directed at the 1937 Gershwin Memorial
Concert in Los Angeles. In 1935 he relocated to Los Angeles, where he worked
intensively in HollywoodÂprimarily at RKO and MGM studios. He composed, arranged,
or conducted for at least several dozen film scores, including Shall We Dance,
with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers (1937, with a score by Gershwin); Swing
Time (1936, with a Jerome Kern score); The Bohemian Girl and Mary
of Scotland (both 1936); and several Laurel and Hardy films. Although Shilkret
is best remembered for his commercial and film music, he also wrote a number
of concert works. His trombone concerto was commissioned by Tommy Dorsey, who
played it in 1945 in New York with Leopold Stokowski conducting, and it was
played at Carnegie Hall in 2003 by the New York Pops orchestra conducted by
Skitch Henderson. Among his other classically oriented pieces are Skyward
(1928), a symphonic poem; Firefly Scherzo; Southern Humoresque
for violin; and a clarinet quintet.
