Nathaniel Shilkret (December 25, 1889 – February 18, 1982) was an American musician, composer, conductor and musical director.
Early life and family
Nathaniel "Nat" Shilkret (originally named Natan Schüldkraut) was born in New York City on Christmas Day 1889. His parents, Rose and William Shilkret, had emigrated from Lemberg (now Lviv in Ukraine). The Shilkret family lived in the East Side of Manhattan until Nat was fifteen years old when they moved into a home his parents purchased in Bushwick, Brooklyn. He attended The City College of New York for one year.
Nat's father was a musician and his dad began teaching him to play the clarinet at the age of four. Both he and his older brother, Lew Shilkret, studied piano with Louis Gruenberg in their growing up years. Lew later was music director of the El Kadia Concert Orchestra in Atlantic City in the 1920s, and also made a small number of recordings as an organist for the Victor Talking Machine Company. Nat later studied piano with Charles Hambitzer who was also the teacher of George Gershwin.
Nat and Lou's younger brother Jack Shilkret also had a career in music; working as a pianist, composer of music for film, and as a music director for dance bands, radio, and the movies. Their youngest brother, Harry Shilkret, became a medical doctor but was also active as a trumpeter in Nathaniel's orchestra. He paid for his medical school tuition at the Yale School of Medicine by performing as a jazz cornetist in venues in New Haven in the mid 1920s. Harry also recorded professionally as a jazz trumpeter with both Nat's orchestra and Jack's orchestra, and with musicians like Rudy Vallee and Jimmy Ray.
Early career
Shilkret was a child prodigy, and at the age of seven he toured the United States at the clarinet soloist with the New York Boys' Orchestra. He concurrently worked as a session musician for recordings made by the VTMC's Export Department. He made his first recording as music director of Victor's International Novelty Orchestra on March 2, 1922.
In 1924, Shilkret became "director of light music" for Victor; He was one of the top popular band leaders of the 1920s and 1930s and was considered a rival to Paul Whiteman. He composed and arranged thousands of pieces. His best-known popular composition was "The Lonesome Road",