- Felix Mendelssohn
Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, born and known generally as Felix Mendelssohn (February 3, 1809 - November 4, 1847) was a German composer and conductor of the early Romantic period. Born to a notable Jewish family, being the grandson of the philosopher Moses Mendelssohn. His work includes symphonies, concertos, oratorios, piano and chamber music. After a long period of relative denigration due to changing musical tastes in the late 19th century, … - Fanny Mendelssohn
Fanny Cäcilie Mendelssohn, later Fanny Hensel, was a German pianist and composer, and was the sister of Felix Mendelssohn; they were both the grandchildren of the distinguished Jewish philosopher, Moses Mendelssohn. - Moses Mendelssohn
Moses Mendelssohn (September 6, 1729 - January 4, 1786) was a German Jewish philosopher to whose ideas the renaissance of European Jews, Haskalah, (the Jewish enlightenment) is indebted. For some he was the third Moses (the other two being the Biblical lawgiver and Moses Maimonides) heralding a new era in the history of the Jewish people. For others, his ideas led towards assimilation, loss of identity for Jews and the dilution of traditional Judaism. - Heinrich Mendelssohn
Heinrich Mendelssohn was a Berlin building tycoon. Mendelssohn was born in Posen, Germany in 1881. In cooperation with Albert Heilmann, Mendelssohn constructed the "Europahaus" (House of Europe) in Berlin, which today houses the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development. He emigrated during the Third Reich, and died in Geneva, Switzerland in 1959. - Kurt Mendelssohn
Kurt Mendelssohn FRS (7 January 1906-18 September 1980) was a German-born British medical physicist and a Fellow of the Royal Society. He worked at the University of Oxford from 1933. He was Reader in Physics there, 1955-1973, Emeritus Reader, 1973; Emeritus Professorial Fellow of Wolfson College, Oxford, 1973 (Professorial Fellow, 1971-1973). - Samuel David Mendelssohn
Samuel David Nathaniel Aaron Mendelssohn, known as Samuel David Mendelssohn, was a German political scientist, author and independent politician for the Free Democrats. - Herbert Blomstedt
Herbert Blomstedt (b. 1927) is an American born orchestral conductor. Born in Springfield, Massachusetts, his Swedish parents moved the family back to their country of origin two years after Herbert's birth. He studied at the Stockholm Royal College of Music and the University of Uppsala, followed by studies of contemporary music at Darmstadt in 1949, Baroque music with Paul Sacher at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, and further conducting studies with Igor Markevitch, … - Josef Rheinberger
Josef Gabriel Rheinberger was a Liechtensteinian organist and composer. When only seven years old Rheinberger was organist at Vaduz Parish Church, and his first composition was performed the following year. In 1851 he entered the Munich Conservatorium, where he later became professor of pianoforte playing, and subsequently professor of composition. When the Munich Conservatorium dissolved he was appointed "répétiteur" at the Court Theatre, … - Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos
Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos is a Spanish conductor and composer. He studied violin, piano, and composition at the conservatories of Bilbao and Madrid. He graduated "summa cum laude" from the Hochschule für Musik in Munich in conducting and won the Richard Strauss Prize. He has served as music director of the Rundfunkorchester Berlin, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, and Chief Conductor of the Bilbao Orchestra and the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, … - Ruggiero Ricci
Ruggiero Ricci is an Italian-American violin virtuoso who has become famous in particular for his performances and recordings of the works of Paganini. He is the son of Italian immigrants. His father first taught him to play the violin. At age seven, Ricci studied with Louis Persinger and Elizabeth Lackey. Persinger would become his piano accompanist for many recitals and recordings. - Zino Francescatti
Zino Francescatti (August 9, 1902 - September 17, 1991) was a French violinist. He was born at Marseilles, and his father was also a violinist, having studied with Camillo Sivori. He began performing at the age of five and made his debut playing the Beethoven violin concerto at 10. Francescatti was a Paganini specialist, and his recording of the Paganini concerto number 1 is still regarded as one of the best ever made. - Moritz Hauptmann
Moritz Hauptmann (October 13, 1792 - January 3, 1868), German composer and writer. He was born at Dresden, and studied music under Scholz, Lanska, Julius Waldemar Grosse and Francesco Morlacchi, the rival of Carl Maria von Weber. Afterwards, he completed his education as a violinist and composer under Louis Spohr, and till 1821 held various appointments in private families, … - Nikita Magaloff
Nikita Magaloff 8th February 1912 in St. Petersburg, Russia; of Georgian origin, Died 26th December 1992 in Switzerland): Pianist. Magaloff and his family left Russia in 1918 for Finland and then Paris, where he studied with Isidor Philipp. He also numbered Ravel and Prokofiev among his friends there. He was best known for his espousal of the music of Chopin, recording the complete piano works - the first time anyone had done so. - Antonio Bazzini
Antonio Bazzini was an Italian violinist, composer and teacher born in Brescia, Italy. As a young boy, Bazzini was encouraged by Paganini which inspired him to begin his concert career at an early age. At 17 he was appointed organist of a church in his native town. When but 18 years of age, he met Paganini and became completely influenced by that master's art and style. For four years from 1843, he studied at Leipzig, … - Joyce Hatto
Joyce Hatto (5 September 1928 - 29 or 30 June, 2006) was a minor British pianist and piano teacher whose performing career spanned some twenty-five years, coming to an end in 1976. Late in her life, doctored copies of commercial recordings made by other pianists were released under her name, earning her high praise from critics. The deception only came to light a few months after her death. - Vlado Perlemuter
Vlado Perlemuter was a French pianist with Jewish origins born in Kovno (now Kaunas, Lithuania). He came to France in 1907. He studied at the Conservatoire in Paris, first with Moszkowski then, later, with Cortot. At fifteen, he graduated from the Paris Conservatoire, where he won the First Prize playing Fauré’s "Thème et variations" before the composer (however Fauré was already deaf at that time). - William Sterndale Bennett
Sir William Sterndale Bennett (April 13, 1816 - February 1, 1875) was an English musical composer. Bennett was born at Sheffield, the son of Robert Bennett, an organist. Having lost his father at an early age, he was brought up at Cambridge by his grandfather, from whom he received his first musical education. He entered the choir of King's College chapel in 1824. In 1826 he entered the Royal Academy of Music, and remained a pupil of that institution for the next ten years, … - Tibor Varga
Tibor Varga was a Hungarian violinist and conductor. Tibor Varga was born in Györ, Hungary in 1921, the birth place of violin greats Joseph Joachim, Leopold Auer and Carl Flesch. He studied at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest with Carl Flesch and Jenö Hubay. He made his first public appearance at the age of six and performed the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto at the age of 10 and made his first recordings at the age of 13. He began touring Europe when he was 14. - Theodor Kirchner
Fürchtegott Theodor Kirchner was a significant German composer and pianist of the Romantic era. Kirchner enjoyed the friendship and admiration of many leading composers of the 19th century yet was unable to maintain a successful career, apparently due to a disordered way of life which included extravagant spending and an addiction to gambling. An accomplished organist and pianist at the age of eight, in 1843 he became organist in Winterthur, … - Wolfgang Schneiderhan
Wolfgang Eduard Schneiderhan (May 28, 1915 - May 18, 2002) was an Austrian classical violinist. He was born in Vienna. After briefly studying with Otakar Sevcik in Prague, he studied with Julius Winkler in Vienna. At age 10 he publicly performed Bach's "Chaconne in D minor". The next year he made his debut in Copenhagen playing the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto. He lived in England for some time from 1929, … - Heinrich Marschner
Heinrich Marschner (Zittau, 16 August, 1795-Hannover, 16 December, 1861), was a German composer of 23 operas and singspiels who was a rival of Carl Maria von Weber and friend of Beethoven and Mendelssohn. Marschner was widely regarded as one of the most important composers in Europe from about 1830 until the end of the 19th century. Even today, he is generally acknowledged as the leading composer of German opera between Weber's death and Wagner, … - Elias Parish Alvars
Eli Parish was an English harpist and composer. He changed his name first in Albert Alvars and later in Elias Parish Alvars The baptismal record found at St James’s Church, West Teignmouth, reports: "Eli, son of Joseph and Mary Ann Parish". His father, an organist, voice teacher and music handler in Teignmouth, gave him his first musical instruction. Eli gave his first concert in Totnes in 1818. - Horatio Parker
Horatio Parker (September 15, 1863-December 18, 1919) was an American composer and teacher. He was a central figure in musical life in New Haven, Connecticut in the late 19th century, and is also remembered as the teacher of Charles Ives. He was born in Auburndale, Massachusetts. After early study in the United States with George Whitefield Chadwick and others, he went to Europe, a common destination for a young American composer in the 1880s. - Sveinbjörn Sveinbjörnsson
Sveinbjörn Sveinbjörnsson was an Icelandic composer and is best known for composing "Lofsöngur", the National Anthem of Iceland. Sveinbjörnsson was studying divinity when he met a young Norwegian violinist and composer, Johan Svendsen. At the time, Svendsen had just finished a study in Leipzig and encouraged Sveinbjörn to go and study music, either in Leipzig or Copenhagen. - Arthur Somervell
Sir Arthur Somervell (5 June 1863 - 2 May 1937) was an English composer, and after Parry one of the most successful and influential writers of 'art-song' in the English music renaissance of the 1890s-1900s. He was born in Windermere, the son of the founder of K Shoes, and was initially educated at Uppingham School and King's College, Cambridge, where he studied composition under Sir Charles Villiers Stanford. From 1883-1885 he studied at the High School for Music, Berlin, … - George Grove
Sir George Grove (August 13, 1820 - May 28, 1900) was an English writer on music, immortalised in the title of "Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians". He was born in Clapham, and studied to be a civil engineer, working for two years in a factory near Glasgow. He was related to Edith M. Bratt, the wife of science-fiction author JRR Tolkien (source "JRR Tolkien:A Biography" Carpenter, … - Jay Greenberg
Jay "Bluejay" Greenberg (born December 131991, New Haven, Connecticut) is an American child prodigy composer who entered the Juilliard School in 2002 and has composed numerous works. He came to the world's attention in part through the sponsorship of Juilliard instructor Samuel Zyman, who lauded Greenberg's youthful talent during a CBS News "60 Minutes" broadcast on November 28, 2004, and again on November 26, 2006. - Julius Benedict
Sir Julius Benedict (November 27, 1804 - June 5, 1885), was a German-born composer and conductor, resident in England for most of his career. Benedict was born in Stuttgart, the son of a Jewish banker, and learnt composition from Hummel at Weimar and Weber at Dresden; with the latter he enjoyed for three years an intimacy like that of a son, and it was Weber who introduced him in Vienna to Beethoven on October 5, 1823. - Moriz Rosenthal
Moriz Rosenthal (December 18, 1862 - September 3, 1946) was a Polish-born American pianist. He was generally considered one of the super-technicians of his day, in the category of Godowsky, Friedman, and Josef Lhevinne. Rosenthal was born in Lemberg (Lviv), where his father was professor at the chief academy. At eight years of age he commenced his piano studies under Galoth, who did not pay much attention to technical ability, … - Theodore Gouvy
Théodore Gouvy was born into a French speaking family in the Alsatian village of Goffontaine which at the time belonged to Prussia. As a child, he showed no significant talent for music and after a normal preparatory education was sent to Paris in 1836 to study law. While there, he also continued piano lessons and became friendly with Adolphe Adam. This led to further music studies in Paris and Berlin. Gouvy, drawn toward pure instrumental music as opposed to opera, … - Cécile Ousset
Cécile Ousset is a French pianist. Cécile was born in Tarbes, France, and gave her first recital at the age of five, subsequently studying at the Paris Conservatoire with Marcel Ciampi (who had formerly taught Yaltah and Hephzibah Menuhin) where, aged only fourteen, she was awarded first prize in the piano graduation class of 1950. She has won major prizes in numerous international competitions including the Marguerite Long-Jacques Thibaud in Geneva, … - Edgar Tinel
Edgar (Pierre Joseph) Tinel (27 March 1854 - 28 October 1912) was a Belgian composer and pianist. He was born in Sinaai, East Flanders, Belgium, and died in Brussels. After studies at the Brussels Conservatory with Brassin (piano) and Gevaert (composition), he began a career as a virtuoso, but soon abandoned this for composition. In 1877 his cantata "Klokke Roeland" won him the Belgian Prix de Rome, … - Gustav Merkel
Gustav (Adolf) Merkel (Oberoderwitz, near Zittau, November 12, 1827 - Dresden, October 30, 1885) was a German organist, whose memory survives - to the extent that it survives at all - because of the abundant music that he wrote for his instrument. <P> Having been given in his youth some lessons by Schumann, Merkel spent most of his career in Dresden, concentrating on organ-playing from 1858. - Ernest Lough
Ernest Lough (11 November 1911 - 22 February 2000) was a famous boy soprano. He joined the choir of the Temple Church in London in 1923, which was under the direction of a brilliant young organist and choirmaster George Thalben-Ball (later Sir George Thalben-Ball) who had just succeeded Sir Henry Walford Davies. As a chorister of the Temple Church, Ernest Lough had a choral scholarship to the nearby City of London School. - Julius Stern
Julius Stern was a German musician. He was born at Breslau on August 8, 1820. He received his elementary education in music from the violinist Peter Lüstner, and at the age of nine played at concerts. In 1832 his parents removed to Berlin, where Stern studied first under Maurer, Ganz, and Saint-Lubin, and later under Rungenhagen at the Königliche Akademie der Künste. As a result of several compositions which he had written while a pupil of the academy, … - Richard Pohl
Richard Pohl (September 12, 1826-December 17, 1896) was a German music critic, writer, poet, and amateur composer. He figured prominently in the mid-century War of the Romantics, taking the side opposite Eduard Hanslick, and championing the "Music of the Future" (the progressive Romantic style of Franz Liszt and Richard Wagner). Pohl was born in Leipzig. - Pancho Vladigerov
Pancho Haralanov Vladigerov (March 13, 1899, Zürich, Switzerland - September 8, 1978, Sofia, Bulgaria) was a Bulgarian composer, pedagogue, and pianist. Pancho Vladigerov belongs to the second generation of Bulgarian composers. He was among the founding members of the Bulgarian Contemporary Music Society (1933), which later became the Union of Bulgarian Composers. He marked the beginning of a number of genres in Bulgarian music. - George Alexander Macfarren
Sir George Alexander Macfarren (born March 2, 1813 in London; died October 31, 1887 in London) was an English composer. He entered the Royal Academy of Music in 1829. A symphony by him was played at an Academy concert in 1830; for the opening of the Queen's Theatre in Tottenham Street, under the management of his father, in 1831, he wrote an overture. His Chevy Chace overture, the orchestral work by which he is perhaps best known, was written as early as 1836, … - Hans Keller
Hans Keller (1919-1985) was an Austrian-born British musician and writer who made significant contributions to musicology and music criticism, and invented the method of 'Wordless Functional Analysis' (in which a work is analysed in musical sound alone, without any words being heard or read). Keller was born into a well-to-do and culturally well-connected Jewish family in Vienna, and as a boy was taught by the same Oskar Adler who had, decades earlier, … - Cipriani Potter
Philip Cipriani Hambly Potter was a British composer, pianist and educator. Born in London, the son of Richard Huddleston Potter, Cipriani was named after his godmother (a relative of Giovanni Battista Cipriani). His father begun his musical instruction, which was continued by Thomas Attwood, William Crotch and Joseph Wölfl. Frustrated by a lack of opportunities in England, Potter went to Vienna in 1817, where he met Beethoven who advised him to study with Aloys Förster.
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