Kenneth Dewitt Schermerhorn (November 20, 1929 – April 18, 2005) was an American composer and orchestra conductor.

Early Years

Schermerhorn was born in Schenectady, New York where he studied clarinet, violin and trumpet in school. At age fourteen he forged a baptismal certificate to appear older so he could play in a dance band that played in night clubs. He soon created his own five piece band called the The Blue Moods. He sang the lead and played trumpet for the Blue Moods.

At age seventeen he was accepted into The New England Conservatory of Music which he graduated from in 1950 with honors. He went on to play trumpet with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Kansas City Philharmonic among several other orchestras.

Army Years

Schermerhorn was drafted in the U.S. Army and in 1953, while serving in Germany, he was assigned to be the conductor of the U.S. Seventh Army Symphony Orchestra. This was his first conducting position and he proved to be quite successful winning the Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Medal and the Harriet Cohen International Award for Young Conductors .

Leonard Bernstein

After leaving the Army Schermerhorn studied and played under Schermerhorn studied and played under Leonard Bernstein at Tanglewood. At Tanglewood Schermerhorn won the Serge Koussevisky Memorial Conducting Award two consecutive years in a row. This was a very influential time in Schermerhorn's life. He was quoted as saying of Bernstein, "He was my first real and certainly my most important teacher." Later in life, Schermerhorn would serve again under Bernstein as the assistant director of the New York Philharmonic.

American Ballet Company

At the age of only 28 years old, in 1957, Schermerhorn was appointed to the position of music director of the American Ballet Theater . He served in this position until 1968, and then again from 1982-1984.

Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra

In 1968 Schermerhorn became the music director and conductor of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra . During his time there he was awared the Sibelius Medal in 1979 from the Finnish government for his outstanding performance of works by Jean Sibelius.

Nashville Symphony

In 1983 Schermerhorn joined the Nashville Symphony as music director and conductor. He is widely credited with raising the level of excellence of the arts in Nashville. The Schermerhorn Symphony Center in Nashville, Tennessee is named in his honor. The name of the Symphony Center was announced before his death.

Schermerhorn died at approximately 2 a.m. (CST) at Vanderbilt University Medical Center after a brief battle with Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

Sources

• Nashville Symphony Obituary
• Tennesean article about Schermerhorn