George Richard Marek

George Richard Marek (13 July 1902 – 7 January 1987) was an Austrian-born American music executive and author of biographies of classical composers.
Marek was born in Vienna, then the capital of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the son of dentist Martin Marek and Emily Weisberger. From 1918, Marek studied at the University of Vienna until he emigrated to the United States in 1920, where he became a citizen in 1925. He married Muriel Heppner the following year; the couple had one son, editor, publisher, and author Richard Marek.
Marek's first job in the US was as a stock boy in the ostrich-feather department of a milliner, but he soon became involved in advertising. From 1930 until 1950, he was vice president of the J. D. Tarcher Agency. In 1950 Marek unsuccessfully attempted to gain RCA Victor's advertising account for Tarcher; instead, he was offered the position of manager of artists and repertory at RCA Victor. Seven years later he became vice president and general manager of RCA Victor; he remained in that position until 1972.
When he grew up in Vienna, Marek had regularly visited the Vienna State Opera; after his arrival in New York City, he became a devoted standee at the old Metropolitan Opera House. Marek was the music editor of Good Housekeeping from 1941 until 1957 and a co-founder of the Reader's Digest Record Club. He was for many years a panel member on the radio broadcasts of the Metropolitan Opera Quiz.
Marek introduced some pronounced changes in the marketing of classical music at RCA Victor. Record jackets became more colorful and classical records were sold in drugstores and supermarkets. He was responsible for the best selling album Classical Music for People Who Hate Classical Music in 1953. Marek was instrumental in promoting the recordings of pianists Gary Graffman and Arthur Rubinstein and conductors Pierre Monteux, Fritz Reiner, and Arturo Toscanini.
Marek continued in retirement as a consultant to RCA and the Reader's Digest Record Club. He died at the age of 84 at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center in New York City; he was survived by his wife and their son, and two brothers, Carl and Frederick, both of Manhattan, and a sister, Anneliese Fish, of White Plains.
Some of his books have been translated into other languages. Marek also wrote magazine articles, e.g. for Harper's Bazaar, and liner notes; he was nominated for the 1977 Grammy Award for Best Album Notes for Beethoven: The Five Piano Concertos, with Daniel Barenboim conducting the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Arthur Rubinstein playing the piano.
Bibliography
"Guiding your child to music", Pictorial Review, 1935
"How to Listen to Music Over the Radio", Pictorial Review, 1937
Bach on Records, foreword by Leopold Stokowski, Four Corners, 1942
Beethoven on Records, foreword by Bruno Walter, Four Corners, 1942
A Front Seat at the Opera, Allen, Towne & Heath, 1948
The Good Housekeeping Guide to Musical Enjoyment, Rinehart & Company, 1949
Puccini: A Biography, Simon & Schuster, 1951
Opera as Theater, Harper & Row, 1962, (reprint by Greenwood Press, 1977)
The World Treasury of Grand Opera, Its Triumphs, Trials and Great Personalities (editor), Harper, January 1957
Richard Strauss, Gentleman Genius, Simon & Schuster, 1966
Richard Strauss: Life of a Non-Hero, Victor Gollancz Ltd, November 1967,
in Spanish: Vida de un Antihero, 1985, Javier Vergara,
Beethoven: Biography of a Genius, Funk & Wagnalls, 1969
in Polish: Beethoven: biografia geniusza, Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy, 1997
in German: Ludwig van Beethoven: Das Leben eines Genies, mvg, 1970,
in Spanish: Javier Vergara, 1985,
in Russian (as Джордж Марек): Рихард Штраус: Последний романтик
The Eagles Die: Franz Joseph, Elisabeth, and Their Austria, Harper & Row, 1974,
Gentle Genius: The Story of Felix Mendelssohn, Apollo Editions, 1972,
Toscanini: A Biography, Vision Press, June 1976,
The Bed and the Throne: The Life of Isabella d'Este, Harper & Row, 1976,
Chopin, with Maria Gordon-Smith, Littlehampton Book Services, 1978,
in Polish: Warszawa Czytelnik, 1990
Cosima Wagner, Julia Macrae, February 1983,
in German: Hestia, 1982,
in Japanese: (ワーグナーの妻コジマ: リストの娘の愛と策謀 / Wāgunā no tsuma kojima: risuto no musume no ai to sakubō), 中央公論社 / Chūō Kōronsha, 1983
"Richard Strauss and Hugo von Hofmannsthal, a Reevaluation" in Richard Strauss: Der Rosenkavalier (The Metropolitan Opera Classics Library), Little & Brown, 1982,
Schubert: A Biography, Viking Adult, November 1985,
also in Spanish: Javier Vergara, 1986
References
"Marek, George Richard" by Paula Morgan in American National Biography Online, February 2000
"George R. Marek, 84, author and ex-RCA Victor official", obituary by Bernard Holland, The New York Times (8 January 1987)
External links
George R. Marek, authority file at the Library of Congress authorities records
George R. Marek at the National Library of Australia
1902 births
1987 deaths
Austrian emigrants to the United States
American music industry executives
Classical music critics
American music journalists
20th-century American biographers