From the teeming East Side which produced Irving Berlin and Eddie Cantor, rose Arthur T. Cremin, who once challenged the world with a twenty-five-cent-a-lesson music school. Today he has “arrived” at Carnegie Hall, goal of aspiring composers.
While filling the position of director of the New York Schools of Music, Cremin worked on an original manuscript entitled “The Story Teller.” In the composition Homeric battles are set to music in the manner of the odes of the early Grecian wandering minstrels.
The work is scheduled to receive its world premiere at Carnegie Hall.
Years ago Cremin, a youth with a flaring shock of red hair, nailed up a sign above his Stanton street alcove offering music-lessons for the small sum of twenty-five cents. Deans of music jeered and rivals snickered that it couldn’t be done. The little alcove has become one of the largest music conservatories in the world, The New York Schools of Music.
When the music school grew its books on music technique and harmony became widely used. Finally Cremin turned his hand to original composition, and “The Story Teller” is the first product.
Long a crusader for musical censorship, Cremin offers his new composition as a constructive substitute for the sexy tunes of the better-known Harlem band leaders.