Dr. Alvin Kranich

Dr. Alvin Kranich hosted WNYC's weekly show Musical Essays from 1932 to 1937.

Born in New York in 1865 of German parents, Alvin Kranich studied piano in Europe with Anton Rubinstein and was one of the corporate officers of the renowned piano factory Kranich & Bach, founded by his father Helmuth.  After a busy touring and composing life abroad, he returned to New York for good in 1930; from 1932 to 1937, "Dr. Kranich" hosted the weekly show Musical Essays on WNYC. In 1935 he presented a series on the station titled "The piano-forte: its development and its literature" alongside Lionel Sinclair, and occasionally appeared on the WNYC program Musicale. His "Fantasy Overture" was broadcast over WNYC's airwaves.

Dr. Alvin Kranich appears in the following:

Dr Kranich, your piano's ready. I'm afraid it's not built by your dad.

Friday, October 19, 2012

WNYC

On March 5, 1853 a German piano maker named Henry Steinway (né Steinweg) founded Steinway & Sons at 85 Varick Street in New York City, barely five blocks from the present-day WNYC studios. Less than three months later another, much younger German piano maker named Helmuth Kranich would also arrive at these shores. Little did he suspect that one of his children would someday work at a competing form of entertainment: radio, specifically WNYC.

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Fantasy Overture [by] Dr. [Alvin] Kranich

Saturday, January 01, 1938

The exact date of this episode is unknown. We've filled in the date above with a placeholder. What we actually have on record is: 1938-uu-uu.

This episode is from the WNYC archives. It may contain language which is no longer politically or socially appropriate.

Alvin Kranich's "Fantasy overture" for orchestra. ...

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