Walter Unterberg

1925 Wien - 2013 Los Angeles
Walter Unterberg, born May 22 in Vienna as the son of Dr. Salomon and Salomea Unterberg, engineer, patent attorney, musician, conductor. 1933-38 violin lessons with Guido Brandweiner, 1938 exile in Great Britain, where he finished school and studied musicology with Humphrey Procter-Gregg at Manchester University. Further violin and viola lessons with Richard O'Malley and Alban C. Peckover; double bass with Thomas Hartley. At the same time he studied engineering, 1946 graduating from Manchester University with a M.Sc in Mechanical Engineering. That same year he emigrated to the USA, where he worked at the General Motors Institute of Technology, later on as an aerospace engineer and in environmental science for Marquardt, North American Rockwell, Atlantic Richfield und CSC. from 1948 on he conducted the 'College Concert Band' Michigan and played in several city orchestras, also acting as background actor at the New York City Opera. When in 1950 he moved to Los Angeles he took up his music studies, i.e. conducting with Richard Lert, and old music and historic string instruments with Murray Lefkowitz, Next to his work he graduated 1964 with a doctorate in chemical instrument construction at the University of California, Los Angeles. After his retirement he became a patent attorney. In 1970 he founded and directed the Pacific Broken Consort, with which in 1981 he was invited to Edinburgh Festival. In 1972 he founded and conducted the West Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, conducting several opera companies in Southern California after 1982. Walter Unterberg passed away in Los Angeles June 23, 2013. Like many other former refugees he was a member of the Orpheus Trust. Update Primavera Driessen Gruber 9. September 2015