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Alexander Bloch (1889-1983) was born in Selma, Alabama. He grew up in New York City, where he briefly attended Columbia University. He spent eight “miserable” years as a salesman in a silk importing business with his uncle although he was able to begin advanced study of the violin with Eduard Herrman. In order to get “European school” he studied briefly with Ottaker Sevcik in Vienna, Austria. After some bureaucratic difficulties, he studied with the distinguished violin teacher Leopold Auer, court violinist to the Czar, in St. Petersburg, Russia. Auer helped him to find a position as concertmaster and soloist in Tiflis, Caucasus.

Alexander Bloch made his New York musical debut in Town Hall in 1913. He was accompanied on the piano by his cousin and fiance Blanche Bloch. The next Summer he spent with Auer in Dresden, while Blanche studied in Berlin. They were both able to escape from Europe at the beginning of World War I on one of the last passenger steamers that was allowed to sail. They were married soon after in 1914. From 1913 to 1931, the Blochs gave many concerts featuring violin and piano sonatas. They also had many students. In 1918, Leopold Auer arrived from Vienna, and Bloch served as his assistant for ten years.

Bloch became interested in conducting in 1926, and he studied with Chalmers Clifton of the American Orchestral Association. For several years he and his students gave free concerts at the Educational Alliance on New York’s Lower East Side. During the depression, the Blochs moved to their farm called “Springhill Farm”. In a classic melancholia Alexander Bloch didn’t touch his violin for about four years. His family used the farm to sponsor a boys’ camp, then a music camp, and then a drama school. Their efforts revived Bloch’s interest in music which helped to awaken him from his long depression. The Blochs organized the Chatham (NY) Choral Society which produced Gilbert and Sullivan operettas. Then they wrote an operetta called Roeloff’s Dream for the dedication of the consolidated Roeliff-Janssen School, where Blanche taught music, near Hillsdale. They also gave weekly chamber music concerts in their barn.

In 1934 Blanche Bloch taught at the Out-of-Door School in Sarasota, Florida, while Alexander wrote the music for The Lone Tree, which was produced by the Sarasota Players in 1935. In 1936 Mr. and Mrs. Bloch joined the faculty of Rollins College, Winter Park, Florida, where he composed songs, a string quartet and an opera. Alexander Bloch became conductor of the Central Florida Symphony Orchestra in Winter Park from 1934 to 1943. He was also a guest conductor appearing with the NBC Symphony in New York City and the National Symphony in Washington, D.C. Unfortunately, the Central Florida Symphony Orchestra had to fold after losing 27 men to the armed forces.

In 1950, at age 75, Alexander Bloch became nationally known as the popular conductor of the new Florida West Coast Symphony in Sarasota, Florida, until his retirement in 1963. Blanche and he settled at “the Farm” near Hillsdale, New York surrounded by children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren. Blanche died in 1980 at the age of 89, and Alexander died in 1983 at the age of 101.

Blanche Bloch was the first cousin and wife of Alexander Bloch, so her maiden name and her married name were identical. She was a pianist, lecturer, and author. She was born in New York City in 1890. Her father died when she was 14 so her mother took her to Vienna where she studied piano for four years. After returning to Starkville, Mississippi, Blanch organized a segregated night school for black children of cotton mill workers. When her family returned to New York City, she renewed her acquaintance with her cousin and future husband Alexander Bloch. They became a well-known musical team and were married in 1914.

Blanche Bloch’s independent career included raising two children, Alan (b.1915) and Janet (b. 1917), and writing a one-act play which ran for a season on the Keith circuit. She was the originator and founder of the New York Women’s Orchestra in the early 1930s, and she wrote music articles for “The Nation” and “Harpers”. She also wrote murder mysteries like The Bach Festival Murders (1942) and The Strange Case of Mr. Crawford (1948). She delivered lectures on music before each one of her husband’s Sarasota concerts. She belonged to many service organizations including the Hillsdale Garden Club and the Friends of the Berkshire Music Center Committee.