Ernest Bloch Society – A Brief History

1937: The Ernest Bloch Society was set up in London and New York. The President was Albert Einstein and the society numbered Sir Thomas Beecham, Sir John Barbirolli, Sir Henry Wood, Bruno Walter and Ralph Vaughan Williams amongst its illustrious Vice-Presidents.  

1967: The Hon Officers included Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth of the Belgians, Leonard Bernstein, Nadia Boulanger, Pablo Casals, Colin Hampton (President), Yehudi Menuhin, Georgia O’Keeffe, Roger Sessions and Joseph Szigeti. Ernest Bloch’s daughter Lucienne Bloch Dimitroff and granddaughter Sita Milchev were also on the board.  

1980-2005: Dr Greg Steinke began a decades-long project to recognize the work of Ernest Bloch – first at Linfield College (Oregon) on the 100th anniversary of Bloch’s birth and later with Sharon Morgan and the Oregon Coast Council for the Arts and the BAY (Bloch and Yaquina) Music Association, who launched the Ernest Bloch Music Festival.

2005: The first Ernest Bloch Booklet was planned by Frank Geltner and the Oregon Coast Council for the Arts. Nancy Steinberg was commissioned to prepare the first version of the booklet and gave it the name it has maintained since then, Composer in Nature’s University.  In its first appearance this booklet was made possible by a grant from the Oregon Arts Commission. It has been revised on several occasions, once to acknowledge an important production of Ernest Bloch’s Macbeth in Long Beach and Chicago. In 2018 it was revised to celebrate the dedication of the Ernest Bloch Memorial Wayside and, importantly, included the efforts of Dr Alexander Knapp to show a complete chronological list of Ernest Bloch’s compositions.

2006: Aware of the approaching 50th anniversary of Bloch’s death (July 1959) (JMI) Director Geraldine Auerbach MBE, working closely with Dr Alexander Knapp the noted Bloch scholar, brought together Bloch enthusiasts in the UK and across the world to work towards marking this anniversary.   

2007: JMI and IEBS presented an International Conference, ‘Ernest Bloch: the Man and his Music’ at Cambridge University. Read the review here International Conference.   

2008: Sir Charles Mackerras accepted the role of President of the International Ernest Bloch Society (IEBS) and after his death, cellist Steven Isserlis became President. in 2012. On this link you can see the officers of 1937, 1967, and 2008. IEBS Original officers.  For more about the 2008 event Read more   

2009: The Society encouraged and documented performances taking place around the world in the 50 years since Bloch’s death. IEBS and JMI jointly presented two outstanding concerts in London.  See Chamber Concert Wigmore Hall  The Ernest Bloch Music Competition was also created, in London, by Cellist Sagi Hartov.  Supported by IEBS with prizes and publicity and often with performances for the winners, it ran annually for four years until 2012. Summer 2009 saw the establishment of an email and printed newsletter.  All on newsletters page. ‘Ernest Bloch Place’ a dedicated area near the Bloch house, was declared by the Newport City Council. Events scheduled in Portland, Newport, Ashland, San Francisco and Berkeley. Alex Knapp and Frank and Jo Maitland Geltner were joined by members of the Bloch family and by Eric Johnson throughout the week-long program.

2014: Natalie Clein, Rivka Golani and Raphael Wallfisch talked with Alex Knapp at the Royal College of Music about their feelings towards Bloch and their recent Bloch recordings. Read More. Listen to the JMI radio programme, Bloch at the RCM  where Gil Karpas interviewed Alex Knapp, Raphael Wallfisch and Natalie Clein with music performed by the cellists.   

2016: Cambridge University Press published Ernest Bloch Studies co-edited by Alexander Knapp and Norman Solomon.  JMI was proud to jointly host a launch for the book with The Spiro Ark.  See   Launch as SOAS. 

2018: International musicians, who had been performing and recording the music of Ernest Bloch, became Associate Artists of IEBS for mutual benefit.  These included Natalie Clein, Raphael Wallfisch, cellists, Robert Max cellist and conductor, Rivka Golani, violist, Jack Liebeck and Miriam Kramer, violinists, Danny Driver and Piers Lane, pianists, Malcolm Singer, Benjamin Wolf, conductors and composers.  IEBS also established an email discussion list connecting Bloch enthusiasts from all over the world.

2018: On July 21, 2018, the Ernest Bloch Memorial Wayside was dedicated within several hundred feet of Ernest Bloch’s Oregon residence from 1941. Members of the Bloch family travelled from Washington State, California and Oregon to take part in the program.

2019: JMI and IEBS planned a joint event.  This was to be a day at SOAS in April 2020, celebrating Ernest Bloch with lectures, masterclasses and a concert by some of our Associate Artists. Sadly, it had to be cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic. 

2020: IEBS instigated the Bloch Study Group. This presents monthly Zoom meetings with talks on varied aspects of Bloch’s life and work presented by scholars and performers.

2021: IEBS aims to merge and combine existing content from multiple websites into one.

2021: the Ernest Bloch Society and the Lincoln County Historical Society have entered into discussions to work mutually in preserving the legacy of Ernest Bloch.

Aims, Objectives, People

Aims and Objectives of the Society

• To promote greater awareness and appreciation of the music of Ernest Bloch
• To encourage performances and recordings of his works
• To list his compositions with details of titles, instrumentation and publication
• To highlight online resources of information and scholarly research on Bloch 
• To keep the public informed of Bloch performances and cultural events  

To achieve and maintain these objectives, IEBS

• Maintains this comprehensive website www.ernestbloch.org 
• Produces an email Newsletter 
• Responds to requests and initiatives
• Lists and promotes performances of Bloch’s music by professional and amateur musicians
• Arranges and participates in study days and lectures, masterclasses and workshops on Bloch and his music at prestigious music institutions throughout the world.
• Maintains a Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/2810320052621256 
• Maintains an Instagram account ####
• Maintains an email list for ease of communication. To join the Ernest Bloch Society email list, send an email to listserv@jiscmail.ac.uk. Leave the subject line BLANK and in the Message say: SUBSCRIBE ERNESTBLOCHSOCIETY followed by your First name and your Last name only (please delete any automatic signatures).

Vice-Presidents

Derek Aviss Former Principal and Executive Director of Trinity Laban, London 
Bob Boas music patron, London
Philip Bohlman Professor, University of Chicago
Martyn Brabbins BBC conductor, London
David Cohen CBE music patron, London
Rob Cowan journalist and BBC broadcaster
Philippe Dinkel Director, Geneva Conservatoire
Brian Foster OBE FRS Professor, Oxford University
Jonathan Freeman-Attwood Principal, Royal Academy of Music, London 
Isaac Frenkel Goldenberg President, Beethoven Foundation, Chile
Howard Goodall composer and broadcaster
Joseph Horovitz composer, Professor, Royal College of Music, London 
David Z Kushner Professor Emeritus, Florida University
Colin Lawson Director, Royal College of Music, London 
Jonathan Mills Director, Edinburgh International Festival
Christopher Nupen film maker, Allegro Films, London
György Pauk violinist and Professor, Royal Academy of Music, London
Charles Peebles conductor (Macbeth UCL Opera)
Sir Curtis Price KBE AM Warden, New College, Oxford
Gerard Schwarz conductor, USA
Maurice Summerfield Past Master, Worshipful Company of Musicians, London
Jacques Tchamkerten Library Director, Geneva Conservatoire

Executive Committee

Alexander Knapp (Chairman) 
Frank Geltner (Treasurer) 
Lucienne Allen (Secretary)  
Suzanne Bloch Boyer and Lucienne Allen (Music Enquiries)
Jesse Rosenberg (Study Group Leader)
Robert Max and Malcolm Singer (Music Group Leaders)
Mark Kligman, Professor and Director Milken Centre for American Jewish music UCLA
Jennifer Jankel Chair, JMI 
Judy Obrart
Geraldine Auerbach MBE

National Representatives 

Switzerland – Oliver Margulies and Laurent Hirsch www.ernestbloch.ch
Israel – Zecharia Plavin and Dalia Atlas, www.dalia-atlas.com/Bloch-Society
China – Li Jin 
Japan – Akinori Itoh A young person’s guide to Ernest Bloch