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Ottmar Moll Archive

 Collection
Identifier: WUDL-GML-009

Biographical Information

Ottmar Alexander Moll was born in Lebanon, Ill. on July 17, 1877. His family moved to St. Louis in 1883 and he studied music with Ernest R. Kroeger, Sophie Geraldini, George H. Hutchinson, Alfred Ernst and Charles Kunkel. At age 11, his teacher Robert Goldbeck took him to Chicago where he appeared on the concert stage for the first time with Goldbeck.

From 1904 to 1907 he studied in Europe, mainly in Berlin under Barette Stepanoff and Edgar Stillman Kelley. Upon his return he gave numerous recitals until a muscular strain of his left hand induced by over-practicing caused his withdrawal from concert work in 1910. From 1912 until 1923 he was director of the piano department at Lenox Hall, a school for girls located in Kirkwood, Mo and later in University City, Mo. He was an active composer and an honorary member of the St. Louis Musicians’ Guild. The Ottmar Moll Piano School was in the Studio Building, 511 North Taylor Avenue where he taught with his associate, Ernst Krohn from 1923 until he died of pneumonia following blood poisoning induced by an abscessed ear on May 26, 1934.

Moll’s best known composition is a choral piece entitled Achilles in Scyros on a poem by Robert Bridges. He also wrote many songs and piano pieces.

Title
Ottmar Moll Archive
Description rules
dacs
Language of description
eng

Revision Statements

  • 2020 October 26: Resource record updated in ArchiveSpace by Sarah Schnuriger.

Collecting Area Details

Part of the WU Distributed Libraries Collecting Area

Contact:
MSC 1061-141-B
One Brookings Drive
St. Louis MO 63130 US