Career
Denmark's vice-consul in Kansas City was one Thyge Skogaard, a former music publisher, and he encouraged Busch to come to the United States. Consequently, in 1887 he and three friends formed a group called the Gade Quartet and came to America, eventually coming to Kansas City. In addition to playing and conducting, he also began to teach, and soon became known in local cultural circles. When the Philharmonic Choral Society was formed, he was chosen as its director. Through this position he met pianist Sallie Smith, one of the Society's members, who became his wife after a short courtship. In 1911, one of the groups with which Busch was associated became the Kansas City Symphony Orchestra; he stayed with it as director for a further seven years, until his activities were curtailed by American entry into World War I. At the same time, he was active as a composer, and served as a guest conductor elsewhere as well.
In 1912, the King of Denmark made Busch a Knight of the Order of the Dannebrog; consequently, he is sometimes referred to as "Sir Carl". More recognition came in the form of the Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav, into which he was inducted in 1924. He was initiated as an honorary member of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia fraternity by the Fraternity's Chi chapter at the University of Washington in 1913.
The Kansas City Philharmonic, led by Karl Krueger, honored him at a concert in 1938, upon which occasion one newspaper referred to him as "Kansas City’s own outstanding composer and for fifty years its most noted musician."" He taught at the Kansas City-Horner Conservatory, and was one of the first faculty members of the University of Kansas City. He spent summers teaching and conducting as well, being invited to work at the University of Chicago and University of Notre Dame and at the Interlochen Center for the Arts in Michigan. He also frequently summered in Battle Creek, Michigan, as a guest of one of his former pupils. Busch also enjoyed woodcarving and pressing flowers, hobbies which took up more of his time in later years.
Busch's wife died in 1939; Busch himself died in Kansas City in 1943.
Read more about this topic: Carl Busch
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