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Joseph Lauber
JOSEPH LAUBER (b. 1864 Ruswil - d. 1952 Annecy) was a noted Swiss composer, organist and teacher. As a boy, Joseph gained valuable musical experience playing piano in his father's light orchestra. More formal training would come in 1881 when, with the support of a patron, he entered the Zürich Conservatoire where he studied voice, harmony, composition and music history; and took organ lessons with Gustav Weber and piano lessons with Fritz Blumer and Robert Freud. In 1884 Lauber sought to further refine his technique and moved to Munich to study with the celebrated organist and pedagogue Joseph Rheinberger. A few years later he traveled to Paris to study composition with Louis Diémer and Jules Massenet at the Paris Conservatoire. Following his studies, Lauber spent several years as an organist in the canton of Neuchâtel and taught piano at the Zürich Conservatoire from 1899-1901. Eventually, he settled in Geneva where he lived for the remainder of his life, teaching at the local Conservatoire and serving as music director of the Grand Théâtre de Genève. In addition to composing, Lauber co-founded L'Association des Musiciens Suisses in 1900, an organization which premiered a number of his works and still actively promotes Swiss composers and their music today under the more inclusive name L'Association Suisse des Musiciens.
Joseph Lauber greatly admired the music of Debussy, Fauré and Duparc. His own compositions combine the harmonies and textures of the French Impressionists with the formal structures of the German Romantics - with a dose of local Swiss color thrown in for good measure. A prolific composer, his output includes over 200 works in nearly every genre including an opera, an oratorio, 5 symphonies, 5 concertos, and a large catalogue of chamber music for a variety of ensembles.
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