One of the most important people in The Hartt School’s past is often forgotten: one of its biggest supporters and founders.
This is the storied history of Moshe Paranov and the local radio station, WTIC. Besides being the beloved pupil of Julius Hartt in the 1910s, and later business partner in forming the Hartt School of Music in 1920, Paranov shared the same vision as the executives at the emerging Hartford radio station WTIC, of Traveler’s Insurance Co. He and others were helping to build one of the most popular radio-based miniature symphony orchestras of the 1930s and 1940s.
A talented concert pianist as well as conductor, Paranov joined the music staff at WTIC in 1926. He was Associate Musical Director of WTIC in 1931, second only to musical director Christiaan Kriens. In those days, the 35-member ‘Travelers Concert Orchestra’ was the radio feature. Paranov conducted the ‘Sunset Hour’ on Saturday evenings. A conclusion can be drawn that Paranov also had a hand in promoting the ‘Hartt Recital’ series that aired on WTIC through 1931. By 1939, he was in charge, and directing the studio orchestra full-time, on top of his duties as dean and teacher at The Julius Hartt School of Music. Paranov was the music director at WTIC for over a decade, from 1938–49. He would continue the tradition of recording live symphonic music for radio into the 1940s when most radio stations had settled on airing commercial recordings. Fortunately, a great deal of these programs were heard and appreciated nationally through the NBC Radio Network.
His talents as a conductor, teacher, and promoter of radio exceeded that of many of his successors. It is seldom that a real ‘renaissance men’ is seen in the classical music world today like Paranov was.
