Jacques Gerber
Jacques Gerber was a French composer, who was active in the first half of the 20th century. He is mentioned regularly in French newspapers in the 1920s with concerts, therefore it is strange that there is so little biographical information about him. If you know more about Jacques Gerber please let me know via my contact subpage.
I found a reference that Jacques Gerber was born in 1890. That fit to newspaper articles from the early 1920s that describe him as a "young composer". I found another reference that he studied at the Ecole Niedermeyer, a music conservatory in Paris. That must be before 1914 and it is most likely that Jacques Gerber fulfilled his military service in World War I. But that is all information I could find about Jacques Gerber before 1920.
From 1920 Jacques Gerber is mentioned regularly in articles of Parisian newspapers. His music seemed to be quite successful. For example in 1925 an article announces an evening concert with an "all Jacques Gerber program" at the well-known jazz cafe "Le Cameleon", subsequent to the afternoon program dedicated to compositions by Max d'Ollone (a well-known composer nowadays). And the radio station "Tour Eiffel" broadcasted in 1926 a "Festival des oeuvres de Jacques Gerber" with performances of his compositions: "Un mot sur Jacques Gerber" for piano, Suite en octaves for piano, an orchestral piece, "Pieces non baptisees" for piano and orchestra, chansons on words of Paul Fort and Tristan Klingsor.
After 1930 the trace of Jacques Gerber disappears. I found no reason for this and what he did in the following years. I only found a note that Jacques Gerber died in 1964.
In my possession is an autograph manuscript of "Six petites pieces manuscrites pour piano". The compositions are written into a bound sheet music booklet ("Cahier de Musique") published by B. Roudanez in 1919. The manuscript is signed at the end and dated "St. Cloud le 1er Septembre 1919" and dedicated to "Kreta". Saint Cloud is a small city near Paris and a well-known composer's colony in the early 20th century, for example Maurice Ravel lived there in 1919 as well.
