Rudolph Reuter

[2] While still a teenager, he traveled to Berlin, Germany, where he studied with Karl Heinrich Barth, as well as with Max Bruch.

In 1920, he was the first pianist to give a public performance of Charles Tomlinson Griffes's revised piano sonata; the Chicago Tribune critic praised Reuter's playing of the piece, citing the pianist's "enthusiasm and excellent musical understanding,” but dismissed the sonata out-of-hand as “wholly meaningless and useless musical material.”[6] The critic for Musical America offered even more trenchant criticism: "Especially noteworthy was his first performance from manuscript, of a sonata in four divisions, but in one movement, by Charles T. Griffes.

This work by the Southern [sic] composer, hardly measures up to his many compositions we have heard, either in thematic worth or harmonic texture.

The short thematic materials and the vague harmonic meanderings, leave the hearer in uncertain mood as to the meaning of the entire work.

Mr. Reuter played the sonata with virile and straight forward style, but even his excellent performance could not rescue the sonata from its drab dullness.”[7] Reuter taught for many years in Chicago, first at the Chicago Musical College, then at the American Conservatory of Music.