Max Lempel was born in Vienna, Austro-Hungarian Empire, in 1900 into an assimilated Jewish family. He studied at the Akademie für Musik und darstellende Kunst in Vienna and was a member of a Zionist youth movement in the city. He studied in Vienna and Prague with Alexander von Zemlinsky and collaborated with him as a conductor and organist. Upon his return to Vienna from Prague, he continued his career as a conductor of choirs and orchestras.
In 1925 he immigrated to British Palestine with his wife and three-year-old son. There he founded one of the first, if ad hoc, symphony orchestras in the country (preceding the Palestine Orchestra, later on Israel Philharmonic Orchestra), conducted choirs and was active as an organist, playing organ concerts at the YMCA in Jerusalem. His outdoor concerts in Tel Aviv during 1927-1929 were remarkable events for their time. He was also active in the Palestine Broadcasting Service (later on Kol Israel Radio) where he arranged music and accompanied many singers. He also taught for many years at the Jerusalem Conservatory, later the Rubin Academy of Music.
Sources:
Hirshberg, Jehoash. Music in the Jewish Community of Palestine 1880-1948: A Social History. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995, pp. 95-96.
Lühe, Barbara von der. Die Musik War Unsere Rettung!: Die Deutschsprachigen Gründungsmitglieder Des Palestine Orchestra. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1998, pp. 29-30 (based on an interview with Lampel)
The Max Lampel Archive at the Music Department of the National Library of Israel, Mus 101
