Biographical and Organizational History Note
Karl Krueger was born on January 19, 1894, in Atchison, Kansas. He received musical training at Midland College in Atchison, the University of Kansas, and the New England Conservatory, studying there with George Whitefield Chadwick and Wallace Goodrich. He studied in Vienna from 1920 to 1922 with Robert Fuchs and Franz Schalk; during this time he was also assistant to the conductor of the Vienna Staatsoper. From 1926 to 1932, Krueger was the principal conductor of the Seattle Symphony Orchestra and was the first conductor of the Kansas City Philharmonic from 1933 to 1943. He led the Detroit Symphony from 1943 to 1949. After leaving Detroit, he founded the American Arts Orchestra for New York radio concerts. He founded the Society for the Preservation of the American Musical Heritage in 1958, with the stated goals of preserving valuable American compositions and exploring the idioms of American music. The Society issued a series of recordings under the label "Music in America" with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra between 1958 and 1970. The Society also published Krueger's book, Musical Heritage of the United States: The Unknown Portion, in 1973. Krueger died in Elgin, Illinois, on July 21, 1979.