Arthur Kay, né Kautzenbach (16 January 1882 in Grottkau/Grodków (Silesia), Germany; † 19 December, 1969 in Los Angeles (CA), United States) was a German-American conductor, composer, arranger, and cellist.
Educated in Silesia and Berlin, he emigrated to the United States in 1907, where, after a few seasons as cellist of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra, he embarked on a career as conductor, composer, and arranger in operetta, silent film, and talkies, first primarily on the East Coast and from 1918 on the West Coast.
From 1900 to 1907, Arthur Kautzenbach studied cello at the Königliche akademische Hochschule für Musik in Berlin with Robert Hausmann, interrupted in 1905–1906 by one year of voluntary service (Einjährigen-Freiwilligendienst).
Financial support for his studies and shortened military service came from a scholarship from the Carl Haase Foundation and from the musician and patron Martin Lesser (c. 1857–1919).
In 1910 Kautzenbach moved to New York City following operetta composer Victor Herbert, whose music had already impressed him during a stay in Hamburg.
He subsequently conducted various opera and operetta projects (e.g., The Paradise of Mahomet by Robert Planquette and The Pink Lady by Ivan Caryll) in New York and the provinces, worked as a cellist in Victor Herbert's orchestra, and then conducted his operettas, including the 1917 New York premiere of Hearts of Erin.
The repertoire he had learned during his time in his father's apprentice orchestras played a significant role, i.e. opera and operetta melodies as well as lighter classical works by Franz Liszt or Edvard Grieg, for example.
After initially conducting various productions of George Gershwin (Lady Be Good, Tip-Toes, Girl Crazy) at different theaters in Los Angeles, for example, which called for a more contemporary, jazz-oriented orchestra, he concentrated more and more on European and U.S. operetta, contrary to the developments of the time.
In the mid-1930s, he first participated as a conductor in the Annual Light Opera Festival, produced by Lynden E. Behymer and Merle Armitage, which was very much in line with Kay's musical preferences.
Kay regularly conducted works of European and U.S. operetta here, and in time also productions by George Forrest and Robert Wright, who liked to draw on existing music, such as that of Edvard Grieg (Song of Norway, 1944) and Alexander Borodin (Kismet, 1953), in their compositions.
Until 1962 Kay was regularly active as part of the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera, after which he largely withdrew into private life and was only occasionally engaged, for example for arrangements, most recently in 1966.