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Hearing the Americas
Nathaniel Shilkret

Nathaniel Shilkret

Band leader

Name

Nathaniel Shilkret

About

Nathaniel Shilkret was a composer, band leader, and musician who directed thousands of recordings for Victor Talking Machine Company (later RCA Victor). Born in New York City to Jewish immigrants, Shilkret managed Victor's foreign department and, later, its light music department. As the director of the Victor house band, Shilkret was a linchpin of the company's effort to make records that would appeal to the entire Latin American market. Throughout the 1920s, the band (often under the name International Novelty Orchestra) recorded dozens of tangos, danzones, boleros, valses, marchas, and other genres by composers from Argentina, Cuba, Mexico, Peru, and elsewhere.

Role(s)

Band leader

Birth date

1889

Death date

1982
Nathaniel Shilkret was a composer, band leader, and musician who directed thousands of recordings for Victor Talking Machine Company (later RCA Victor). Born in New York City to Jewish immigrants, Shilkret managed Victor's foreign department and, later, its light music department. As the director of the Victor house band, Shilkret was a linchpin of the company's effort to make records that would appeal to the entire Latin American market. Throughout the 1920s, the band (often under the name International Novelty Orchestra) recorded dozens of tangos, danzones, boleros, valses, marchas, and other genres by composers from Argentina, Cuba, Mexico, Peru, and elsewhere.