Samuel Gardner
Russian-American musician (1891–1984)
Samuel Gardner (August 25, 1891, Elizavetgrad – January 23, 1984) was an American composer and violinist of Russian Jewish origin. He won a Pulitzer Prize with a string quartet in 1918. He was a student of Franz Kneisel and Percy Goetschius, and began his career as a concert violinist; among his compositions is a violin concerto. He wrote a number of other chamber works, and a handful of things for orchestra, including Broadway, which was performed by the Boston Symphony in the 1929–30 season.
Biography
Samuel Gardner was born August 25, 1891, in Elizavethgrad, Russian Empire, and was brought to the United States at the age of one. His family settled in Providence, Rhode Island, where Gardner attended elementary and high school. From the age of seven, he studied violin with Felix Wendelschaefer. He continued his studies in Boston with Charles Martin Loeffler and Felix Winternitz from 1902 to 1908. At the New York Institute of Musical Art (1908–1913), Gardner studied violin with Franz Kneisel and composition with Percy Goetschius.
Gardner made his New York debut in 1913, played 2nd violin in the Kneisel Quartet from 1914 to 1915, performed with the Chicago Symphony (several times as soloist) in 1915, and toured with the Elshuco Trio in 1916 and 1917.
The public source identifies “Samuel Gardner” as russian-American musician (1891–1984). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Samuel, Gardner and Russian-American.
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Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 25, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1565115. VIAF identifies the subject as 10039722. The Library of Congress control number is no95048116. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1891, 1984, 1918 and 1929.
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This entry incorporates text from “Samuel Gardner” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.