Presser, Theodore

Presser, Theodore

(1848–1925) music publisher, philanthropist; born in Pittsburgh, Pa. After studying music at the New England Conservatory in Boston and then in Leipzig, in 1883 he founded a monthly musical magazine, Etude (which ran until 1957). That same year he founded a music publishing firm that grew to become one of the major American publishers of a wide spectrum of serious music. Prospering early, he founded in Philadelphia the Presser Home for Retired Musicians and in 1916 the Presser Foundation for support of various music-related causes.