E. Robert Schmitz

A protégé of Debussy, Schmitz caught the attention of Camille Saint-Saëns and Vincent D'Indy while directing the Association musicale moderne et artistique (later renamed L'Association de concerts Schmitz) which premiered Debussy's Première rhapsodie, Roussel's Evocations, Le Flem's Crépuscules d'amour, and Milhaud's Suite symphonique.

[1] Schmitz toured the United States in 1919 and, the following year, founded the Franco-American Music Society in New York, which incorporated as Pro Musica from 1923–36.

[2][3] During this period, the first American appearances of Bartók and Ravel were sponsored, as well as lectures and concerts by Schoenberg, Prokofiev, and Stravinsky.

[4] Schmitz published his system of piano study, The Capture of Inspiration, in 1935,[5] as well as editions of the Chopin Etudes, the Bach Two-Part Inventions, and other works that included explanatory texts on his method.

[1][9] Among his pupils were composers Samuel Dolin, Harry Somers, and Gertrude Price Wollner;[10] and pianist Naomi Yanova.