William Kroll

William Kroll was an American violinist, teacher, and composer born (in New York) on January 30, 1901. He is famous for a single composition, Banjo and Fiddle, which most concert violinists learn and play at one time or another.  He began his violin studies with his father (a violinist) at age 4.  At age 9 or 10, he went to Berlin to continue his studies with Henri Marteau, Joseph Joachim’s successor at the Berlin Advanced School for Music.  He returned to the U.S. after World War I broke out in 1914.  In New York, he studied at Juilliard (Institute of Musical Arts) with Franz Kneisel from 1916 to 1921.  He actually made his public debut in New York at age 14.  One source describes his debut as “prodigious.”  Although Kroll concertized as a soloist in Europe and the Americas, he dedicated a great deal of time to chamber music as a member of various chamber music ensembles, well-known in their time: the Elshuco Trio (William Kroll, Willem Winneke, and Aurelio Giorni, 1922-1929), the South Mountain Quartet (1923-), the Coolidge Quartet (William Kroll, Nicolai Berezowsky, Nicolas Moldavan, and Victor Gottlieb, 1936-1944), and the Kroll Quartet (William Kroll, Louis Graeler, Nathan Gordon, and Avron Twerdowsky, 1944-1969.)  The Coolidge Quartet was being paid $400.00 per concert in 1938, a good sum in those days – the equivalent of $6,550.00 today.  From a very early age, he taught at several music schools, namely Juilliard (1922-1938), Mannes College (1943-), the Peabody Conservatory (1947-1965), the Cleveland Institute (1964-1967), and Queens College (1969-). Kroll died (in Boston) on March 10, 1980, at age 79.  

This biography is from pronetoviolins.blogspot.com, which I accessed June 21, 2016, though the author's name isn't listed. If interested, wikipedia.org also has a selected list of his compositions.

Banjo and Fiddle
Jennifer Pike, violin
Tecwyn Evans, conductor
BBC National Orchestra of Wales
​BBC Proms in the Park in Swansea, September 2014

Donkey Doodle
Michelle, violin
midi file, piano

Donkey Doodle
Sabina Silaghi, violin
Sânziana Țârc, piano