| | Abstract: | Laszlo Krausz (1903-1979) and Susan Krausz (1914-2008) were a Jewish couple from Cleveland Heights, Ohio, who were accomplished musicians. Laszlo Krausz was born in Pecs, Hungary in 1903. From an early age he studied violin, travelling to Budapest, Vienna, and Paris to continue his education, until settling in Switzerland in 1929 to study viola. Susan Strauss Krausz was born in Stuttgart, Germany in 1914. She completed piano studies at the Musikhochschule of Stuttgart and then moved to Switzerland in 1933. Following their 1935 marriage, Laszlo and Susan performed a series of viola-piano sonatas for Radio Geneva before immigrating to the United States in 1947. The Krausz family initially settled in New York where Laszlo accepted a position at the New York College of Music and played with the Carnegie Hall Pops Orchestra. Laszlo was then offered a position with the Cleveland Orchestra under George Szell and moved to Cleveland, Ohio, in the fall of 1947. While a member of the Cleveland Orchestra, Laszlo also founded the Cleveland Chamber Orchestra and conducted both the Mansfield Symphony Orchestra and the Akron Symphony Orchestra. He also pursued the sketching and painting that would become his full-time passion following his retirement from the orchestra in 1969. Laszlo's art was shown at various galleries, including the Butler Museum of Art. Susan Krausz joined the faculty of the Cleveland Music School Settlement upon her arrival in the city, and was awarded her M.A. in music from Western Reserve University in 1956. She continued to perform and compose while also teaching piano at Case Western Reserve University and in her home. The Krauszs had two sons, Peter, who owned a public relations firm in Israel until his death in 1989, and Michael, who is currently a philosophy professor at Bryn Mawr College. The collection consists of academic records, address books, advertisements, agreements, appointment books, art catalogs, artwork, awards, biographical information, calendars, certificates, charts, codes of conduct, contracts, correspondence, datebooks, degrees, diaries, exhibit commentaries, flyers, genealogical charts, itineraries, letters of recommendation, lists, magazine articles, magazine and newspaper clippings, music compositions, naturalization documents, notebooks, notes, passport documents, posters, press releases, programs, publications, a radio script, a recipe book, registers, regulations, repertoire books, resident alien documentation, resumes, reviews, schedules, scrapbooks, sketchbooks, sketches, speeches, telegrams, travel documents, wills, and writings. | |
