Reginald de Koven
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Reginald de Koven was born at Middletown, Connecticut, April 3, 1859. His education was received mainly in Europe, whither he went in 1870. He graduated at Oxford University, England (St. John's College), in 1879. His musical studies have been very various, and were undertaken at Stuttgart with Speidel, and with Lebert and Pruckner. At Franfort he studied with Dr. Hauff for composition, and after staying there for six months moved on to Florence, Italy, where he studied singing with Vanuccini. Study in operatic composition followed, first with Genee, in Vienna, and then with Delibes, in Paris. Mr. De Koven now resides in New York, where he is engaged in composition and also in musical criticism. As critic on a leading New York journal, Mr. De Koven has been able to find excellent scope for his wide musical knowledge. Nevertheless, it is as a composer that his name is best known to the American musical world. His songs are very numerous and very popular, especially Oh Promise Me, which is one of the biggest song successes of recent years. His comic operas have been very popular, and as a composer of works of this description Mr. De Koven, like Victor Herbert, has become famous throughout the country. His greatest successes have been Robin Hood, produced in Chicago, 1890, and in London, 1891, and Rob Roy, produced in Detroit, 1894, and The Mandarin, produced in Cleveland, Ohio, 1896.
This article is based on a text from the Etude magazine, 1909-1922.