Plettner, Arthur

Arthur Plettner was born November 15, 1904 in Bronx, New York. He moved to Germany with his parents at age 5 and studied flute and piano at the State Conservatory in Wurzburg. They returned to New York in 1924, at which time Plettner was the Associate Conductor and Chorus Master for the German Comic Opera Company in New York. In 1931, he joined the faculty at the Emma Willard Conservatory, teaching piano and harmony, before attending Juilliard Graduate School, where he studied conducting with Albert Stoessel. In 1937, he was named the Juilliard Professor of Music at the University of Chattanooga, and from 1937 to 1949 he conducted the Chattanooga Symphony Orchestra. During this time, he also received a Bachelor of Music degree (1943) and Doctor of Music (1951) from the University of Toronto Faculty of Music, primarily studying off-campus.

Starting in 1990, Arthur Plettner and his wife Isa McIlwraith donated their collection of music scores and books to the University of Toronto Music Library. Following his death on February 13, 1999 a bequest to the Faculty of Music established an endowment to support merit-based scholarships for undergraduate and graduate music students at the Faculty.

Added July 20, 2022.