Renate Rosenblatt, 84, musical prodigy
Renate G. Rosenblatt, a musical prodigy who escaped from Nazi Germany with her family as a child and enhanced Philadelphia's classical music scene during her life, died on Monday, Oct. 12, at her Philadelphia home after a battle with lung cancer. She was 84.
Renate G. Rosenblatt, a musical prodigy who escaped from Nazi Germany with her family as a child and enhanced Philadelphia's classical music scene during her life, died on Monday, Oct. 12, at her Philadelphia home after a battle with lung cancer. She was 84.
Ms. Rosenblatt raised two sons while serving as an invaluable musical partner to her husband, Louis Rosenblatt, who played with the Philadelphia Orchestra for 36 years.
"She could have been a concert pianist," her son William Rosenblatt said. Instead, after earning a degree in music education from Temple University, she helped lift her husband's music career - and made a name for herself along the way, creating arrangements that were played by major American orchestras.
Ms. Rosenblatt was born Renate Reiss in Wurzburg, Germany, in 1931 to a Jewish family. Her father, a chemist who ran an alcohol distillery, was briefly imprisoned, which inspired the family's escape. They traveled first to the United Kingdom in 1940, where Ms. Rosenblatt and her brother learned English while her father worked in a glove factory.
In 1941, the family crossed the Atlantic Ocean - a high risk endeavor as German U-boats roved the seas - and came to Philadelphia.
"She used to say, 'There but for the grace of God go I,' " William Rosenblatt remembered. "She had relatives who were killed by the Nazis. They went through a few years of grinding poverty" upon arriving in the United States.
Ms. Rosenblatt was a gifted piano player as a teenager and was introduced to another young oboist who was studying at South Philadelphia High.
That man, Louis Rosenblatt, would become her life partner. They married in 1953 and enjoyed more than half a century together until his death in 2009.
"She'd really like to be remembered by what she contributed to our dad's career," William Rosenblatt said.
Ms. Rosenblatt created arrangements from Handel, Beethoven, and others that could be played on the oboe and English horn, a type of complex musical translation.
Her son Richard Rosenblatt remembered when one such piece was picked up by the Pittsburgh Symphony.
"She ran up all three flights of stairs," he said. "She was so excited to tell my dad."
She also occasionally performed herself, including at one of the first Marlboro Music Festivals in Vermont, at which she played piano.
She returned to Wurzburg later in life, her sons said, and never held ill will toward Germany.
She is survived by her sons, a brother, and two grandchildren.
Ms. Rosenblatt's sons asked that donations in her honor be made to the Philadelphia Orchestra.
Correction: A previous version of this story misstated how many siblings Ms. Rosenblatt had and the musical instrument she played in her youth.
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