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(b Puerto Príncipe, Cuba, ?Nov 28, 1844; d Havana, ?Dec 31, 1918). Pianist, music teacher, arranger, conductor, composer, and lawyer of Cuban birth, naturalized American. Born into a prominent family in Puerto Príncipe, Cuba (present-day Camagüey), Agramonte strongly supported the movement for independence from Spain. He studied music and the law in Cuba, Spain, and France. After vocal studies with Enrico Delle Sedie (1822–1907) and François Delsarte (1811–71) at the Paris Conservatory, he immigrated to the United States, settling in New York in 1869, where he remained until after Cuban independence in 1898. He became a US citizen in 1886.

In the 1870s and 1880s, Agramonte taught music at the Academy of Mount Saint Vincent in the Bronx. In the 1890s he taught with Dudley Buck and William Mason at the Metropolitan College of Music and ran his own School of Opera and Oratorio at his home, teaching singers such as ...

(b Bucharest, 2/Aug 14, 1893; d Bucharest, Feb 18, 1959). Romanian composer, pianist, conductor, teacher, music critic, and director of music programmes. A leading figure of the first half of the 20th century, he laid the foundation of the Romanian school in music, concert life, and musical journalism. He studied with A. Castaldi, D. Dinicu, D.G. Kiriac, and E. Saegiu at the Bucharest Conservatory (1903–11), completing his education with two periods of study in Paris (1913–14, 1923–4), where he studied with d’Indy at the Schola Cantorum and with Paul Vidal at the Conservatoire. A remarkable accompanist, he worked with Enescu, Thibaud, Mainardi, Moodie, and others during the period 1919–45. As a conductor he always achieved a soberly balanced performance; he conducted more than 1500 performances at the Romanian Opera in Bucharest (1921–59), where he specialized in the French repertory (Bizet, Massenet, and Gounod). In his capacities as conductor of the Romanian Philharmonic Society, and as conductor and artistic manager of the Romanian RSO, he did much to encourage Romanian composers. He was also active as a music critic for Romanian and French reviews. Much of his compositional work was done during his youth, including ...

( b Nizhniy Novgorod, Dec 21, 1836/Jan 2, 1837; d St Petersburg, 16/May 29, 1910). Russian composer, conductor, teacher and pianist .

Balakirev was the son of a minor government official. His musical education began with his mother’s piano tuition and proceeded to a course of summer lessons in Moscow with Aleksandr Dubuque. At that time the leading musical figure and patron in Nizhniy Novgorod (and author of books on Mozart and Beethoven) was Aleksandr Ulïbïshev, and it was through his household pianist and musical organizer Karl Eisrich that Balakirev’s induction to music, embracing the crucial discoveries of Chopin and Glinka, continued. Eisrich and Ulïbïshev provided Balakirev with further opportunities to play, read and listen to music, and to rehearse other musicians in orchestral and choral works, including, when he was 14, Mozart’s Requiem. His first surviving compositions date from the age of 15. Balakirev’s formal education began at the Gymnasium in Nizhniy Novgorod and continued after his mother’s death in ...

(b Detroit, March 28, 1866; d Chicago, Dec 6, 1945). American violinist, conductor, musical director, teacher, and composer. Bendix was born to Jewish parents who had emigrated from Germany. His father William was a music teacher. Bendix began formal study at the Cincinnati College of Music where, at the age of twelve, he performed with the college orchestra, directed by Theodore Thomas. This began a long association between the two men, leading to Bendix’s appointment as first violinist and concertmaster of the Theodore Thomas Orchestra in 1886. In August 1893 Thomas resigned his position as music director of the Chicago World’s Columbian Exposition following a series of unsuccessful concerts. Bendix took Thomas’s place as conductor of the Exposition orchestra. This created tension between the two men, and Bendix left the Thomas orchestra in 1896. He went on to serve as conductor at the Manhattan Opera House and to conduct orchestras for world fairs in St. Louis (...

(Mikhaylovich)

(b Kovalyovka, South Ukraine, 7/April 19, 1863; d Moscow, Jan 21, 1931). Russian conductor, pianist, composer and teacher, uncle of Heinrich Neuhaus. He studied the piano with Stein and composition with Rimsky-Korsakov at the St Petersburg Conservatory, where he taught the piano from his graduation in 1885 until 1918 (excluding the years 1905–11), being appointed a professor in 1897. From 1895 to 1911 he was also conductor at the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg, where he gave the premières of Rimsky-Korsakov's Servilia (1902) and Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh (1907) and the Russian première of Tristan und Isolde (1899). In 1908 he conducted the Russian seasons in Paris, achieving wide recognition as a conductor and, more especially, as a pianist. He lived and worked in close contact with Anton Rubinstein, Rimsky-Korsakov, Glazunov, Rachmaninoff and Chaliapin. His performing style, influenced by Rubinstein's, was heroically brilliant and lyrically melodious; he gave the first performances of many piano works by Glazunov, Lyadov and Arensky, among others. He was well known as a teacher, first in St Petersburg, then in Kiev (...

(b Iaşi, 9/May 21, 1899; d Sinaia, May 26, 1992). Romanian composer, violinist, teacher and conductor. He studied the violin in Iaşi (1908–12) with Eduard Caudella and in Craiova (1912–16) with Jean Bobescu and then entered the Schola Cantorum in Paris (1920–24, 1926–7) where he studied with Nestor Lejeune (violin), d’Indy (composition) and Paul le Flem (harmony). After starting his career as a solo violinist he became professor of violin at the conservatories of Cernăuţi and Braşov. In 1935 he was appointed conductor of the Radio Symphony Orchestra in Bucharest where he remained until 1972. Bobescu’s compositions range in theme from historical and biblical subjects to satirical comedy. Though post-Romantic in structure, his music has a pronounced lyrical character: the melodic writing is essentially Romanian but it is clothed in a traditional European harmonic language. His lively orchestration displays a perfect handling of timbres, especially of strings, which he used to achieve impressionistic shading in the operas....

(b Memphis, Jan 21, 1944). American composer, pianist, conductor and musicologist. He studied the piano with Roy McAllister at the University of Alabama (BM 1965), with Sophia Rosoff, and with Soulima Stravinsky at the University of Illinois (MM 1966), where he also studied composition with Ben Johnson (DMA, 1971) and had contact with Hamm, Hiller, Kessler and Brün. He served on the music faculty at Illinois (1968–74) before joining the staff at Wesleyan University. He was a member of the editorial committee of New World Records (1974–8), founding chairman of New England Sacred Harp Singing (1976) and has held visiting professorships at Middlebury College, Bucknell University and the University of Michigan. In 1980 he was Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Studies in American Music at Brooklyn College.

In 1968 Bruce founded the American Music Group (AMG), an ensemble innovative in its dedication to American music of all eras. AMG recorded the music of Anthony Philip Heinrich for Vanguard, toured widely in the United States and, under Bruce’s direction, gave the 20th-century première of Bristow’s ...

(b Vienna, March 11, 1897; d New York, June 12, 1995) Austrian-born composer, conductor, pianist, and repetiteur.

Burger began formal music studies in 1916 at of the University of Vienna, attending lectures by Guido Adler and Egon Wellesz. The following year he enrolled at the Imperial Academy of Music and the Performing Arts where he studied composition with Franz Schreker. In 1919, he left Vienna to study composition with Engelbert Humperdinck in Berlin. Upon Schreker’s appointment as director of the Hochschule für Musik Berlin in 1920, Burger returned to his former tutor’s studio. While enrolled, Burger also studied conducting (1921–2) and was employed as accompanist to the tenor Leo Slezak until gaining his diploma in 1922.

Burger served as repetiteur for the Karlsruhe Opera in 1922–3, and in 1924–7 at the recommendation of Bruno Walter he assisted Artur Bodanzky at the Metropolitan Opera. He served as accompanist to Contralto ...

(b Dumfries, Scotland, April 21, 1933; d London, Feb 25, 2009). English trumpeter, flugelhorn player, bandleader, composer, writer, and teacher, brother of Mike Carr. His mother played ukulele and banjo. Carr grew up in northeast England, where he took piano lessons from the age of 12 and taught himself trumpet from 1950. After studying at King’s College, Newcastle upon Tyne (1952–60, degree, English literature, diploma, education) he served in the army (1956–8), then played with his brother in a band, the Emcee Five (1960 – August 1962). He briefly joined Don Rendell in November 1962 and, after recovering from illness, formed a long-lived quintet with Rendell from 1963 to July 1969; during this period he also worked with Joe Harriott (recording in 1969), Don Byas, and John McLaughlin. In September 1969 he formed his own band, Nucleus, which rapidly became recognized internationally for its experiments with jazz-rock. As a result of its performance at the Montreux International Jazz Festival in ...

(Antonio)

(b Ahualulco, San Luis Potosí, Jan 28, 1875; d San Angél, Sept 9, 1965). Mexican composer, theorist, conductor, violinist, inventor and teacher. Born to an American family during a seemingly peaceful period of Mexico’s history, he received his early musical education at the National Conservatory in Mexico City, where he studied the violin with Pedro Manzano, composition with Melesio Morales and acoustics with Francisco Ortega y Fonseca. Between 1899 and 1905 he was in Europe, where he divided his time between the conservatories of Ghent and Leipzig; at Ghent he studied the violin with Albert Zimmer, and at Leipzig he was a pupil of Jadassohn (composition), Becker (violin) and Sitt (conducting), and led the Gewandhaus Orchestra under Nikisch. During these formative years he shaped his critical philosophy of the practical application and examination of all theoretical precepts. The results were revolutionary, and led him to a lifelong attempt at effecting greater accuracy among the discrepant postulates of physicists, mathematicians and music theorists, and at helping performers to apply, or at least understand, them (see his ...

(b Lowell, MA, 13 Nov 1854; d Boston, MA, 4 April 1931). American composer, teacher, conductor, organist, and pianist.

A prolific composer in nearly all musical genres, he became a leading figure of American music in his prime. Director of the New England Conservatory for over 30 years and one of the most influential teachers in the United States, he was considered “dean of American composers.”

George Whitefield Chadwick was born into a family who lived in New England since c1630 and who considered themselves “old New England stock.” His mother, Hannah Fitts, died shortly after George Whitefield’s birth. His father, Alonzo C. Chadwick (1810–78), remarried in 1855. In his first three years George Whitefield lived in Boscawen, returning to Lowell in 1858. In 1859 the family moved to Lawrence, MA, where the father started a business as an insurance agent. From his older brother ...

[Josef Horymír Capek]

(b Jestrebice, Bohemia, March 12, 1860; d Chicago, Aug 1, 1932). Czech violinist, teacher, conductor, and composer active chiefly in the USA. In 1867, Chapek’s father, a violinist and conductor, moved the family to Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Following education there, Chapek entered the Prague Conservatory, studying violin with Bennewitz, theory and composition with Foerster, and meeting Dvorák. Upon graduation, he toured Europe (1882–3). Returning to America, Chapek continued to concertize widely (1883–93). In Milwaukee, he joined the Mendelssohn Quintet Club (1883–5) and later formed the Chapek String Quartet (1885–7). He was also concertmaster of Milwaukee’s Bach Symphony Orchestra (1885–8) and musical director of the Capital Theatre, Little Rock, Arkansas (1887–8).

In 1888, Chapek moved to Chicago to direct the violin department of the Chicago Conservatory (1888–1902); he would later head the violin departments of the Apollo (also until ...

(b Roman, 1866; d Bucharest, Dec 29, 1918). Romanian composer, pianist, teacher and conductor. After studying at the Leipzig Conservatory with Jadassohn (1886–91) and in Lwów with Karol Mikuli, he became conductor at the Rostock Opera and in Goslar. He also taught in these cities and at the conservatories of Bucharest and Brunswick, where he became director. He made some appearances in Germany as a pianist. His compositions (some manuscripts of which are in ...

(b Vienna, Feb 27, 1928; d Vienna, March 8, 2022). Austrian recorder player, conductor, teacher, and composer. He studied the recorder with Hans Ulrich Staeps, Johannes Collette, and Linda Höffer von Winterfeld, and keyboard instruments with Eta Harich-Schneider. He took the doctorate in philosophy at Vienna University in 1956. He cultivated a lyrical style of playing and was much attracted by improvisatory techniques in both early and contemporary music. His instrument collection included a tenor trombone by Georg Neuschel of Nuremberg (1557), one of the oldest surviving specimens.

In 1958 he founded Musica Antiqua, known as the Ensemble Musica Antiqua from 1959. This group performed music of the Middle Ages to the Baroque on authentic instruments. In 1968 Clemencic founded a group known, from 1969, as the Clemencic Consort, an ensemble for the performance of medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, and avant-garde music. Based in Vienna, it is notable for its exploration and staging of little-known 17th-century operas (such as Antonio Draghi’s ...

(b Manila, May 15, 1909; d Manila, August 11, 1991). Filipino composer, conductor and pianist. In 1930 he graduated from the Conservatory of the University of the Philippines with teacher’s diplomas in piano and in theory and composition; he then studied at the Chicago Musical College (BMus 1932, MMus 1933) and the Neotarian College of Philosophy, Kansas City (PhD 1947). He taught at the University of the Philippines Conservatory (1930–34) and was director and professor at the Manila (1934–9, 1949–52) and Cosmopolitan College (1948–9) conservatories. During World War II he appeared as a pianist and conductor in the USA, Canada, Europe and Hawaii. He was a state cultural adviser (1958–60) and founder-president of the National Federation of Music. He lectured in humanities at the University of the City of Manila (1968–75), and after 1978 worked mainly in the USA, appearing as a composer-conductor at the Seattle Opera House....

(b Hamburg, June 9, 1912; d Frutigen, nr Berne, Aug 6, 1970). American composer, conductor and pianist of Swedish-German parentage. He began his formal musical education at the Cologne Hochschule für Musik, then fled the Nazi regime to continue his studies in Switzerland at the Zürich Conservatory and the University of Zürich. Later he studied composition with Boulanger in California. Dahl’s professional career began with coaching and conducting at the Zürich Stadttheater. In 1938 he left Europe for the USA and settled in Los Angeles. From then on the range of his musical activities and involvements was immense, including work for radio and film studios, composing, conducting, giving piano recitals and lecturing. He joined the faculty of the University of Southern California in 1945 and taught there until his death. Among his better-known former students is the conductor Michael Tilson Thomas.

In addition to teaching composition, conducting and music history, Dahl directed the university’s symphony orchestra (...

[Edme, Edouard, Emile]

(b Paris, May 31, 1817; d Paris, Nov 6, 1897). French violinist, conductor, composer and teacher. At the age of six he began violin lessons with Sudre, who then took him and the young pianist Louis Lacombe on an ‘artistic journey’ of several months. On 1 March 1825 he entered the Conservatoire, where he studied for the next 16 years, winning several first and second prizes and, in 1838, second place in the Prix de Rome for his cantata La vendetta. His teachers included Habeneck, Reicha, Halévy and Berton; with the latter's help he gave a concert of his own compositions on 6 December 1840.

Deldevez began his professional career as a violinist, first at the Opéra from 1833, and then at the Société des Concerts du Conservatoire from 1839. However, conducting became more important, and he took up positions at both institutions from 1847 and 1872 respectively. He became principal conductor at the Opéra in ...

(b Alverdissen, Lippe, Nov 7, 1828; d Bad Pyrmont, Sept 5, 1890). German pianist, teacher, conductor and composer. Having studied with Marxsen in Hamburg (1849) and Lobe in Leipzig, in 1857 he settled in Hamburg, where he founded a musical society and conducted it until 1868. He moved to Berlin in 1874, where he was Kapellmeister of the Royal Opera in Berlin (1886–8), and also conducted concerts. In 1876 he conducted the Silesian musical society founded in Breslau by Count Hochberg. A detailed description of his teaching methods is given by his pupils (see bibliography), especially by Amy Fay. These methods included avoiding lifting the fingers high, careful attention to muscular movement, special study of pedalling and the use of a low piano stool, all designed to cultivate a very soft, even, but penetrating tone. Among Deppe’s most distinguished pupils was Emil Sauer, and he also gave help and advice to Tovey. Deppe’s system was developed further by Adolf Mikeš, who became an influential exponent of it in Prague, and some of his principles were adopted by Leschetizky. His compositions include a symphony, overtures and songs; he also wrote an essay ‘Armleiden der Klavierspieler’ (in ...

(Anastasio)

(b Havana, Oct 25, 1918). Cuban composer, teacher, conductor, and pianist. He studied music in Havana, where his teachers included Jaime Prats, Pedro Sanjuan, and Roldán, then in 1947 went to New York to the Juilliard School of Music and studied with Steuermann (piano), Bernard Wagenaar (composition) and Fritz Mahler (orchestral conducting). He began teaching in 1936 in the Havana conservatories; in 1959 he founded and directed the Alejandro García Caturla Conservatory, ran the School for Instructors in the Arts, and was responsible for organizing specialized teaching at the Seminary for Popular Music. He was professor of music for the Band of the Staff of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Cuba, at the National School for the Arts, and at the Higher Institute for the Arts. He has taught the piano, harmony, counterpoint, and fugue, composition, and orchestration, and his writings embrace music theory, harmony, and education. In ...

(b Blejoi-Prahova, Romania, March 19, 1847; d Bucharest, Romania, May 9, 1928). Romanian composer, cellist, conductor, and teacher. A master of the cello, he was not only a great interpreter with well-defined competence, but also a very good teacher who established a cello school (for which some of his works were especially created). He was an initiator of an important musical life based on chamber repertory.

After studying in Bucharest with Alexandru Flechtenmacher and Eduard Wachmann, he completed his education in Vienna with Schlessinger and in Paris with Franchomme. He was a cellist in the Romanian Philharmonic Society Orchestra and at the National Theatre. Later he conducted the orchestra of the Ministry of Public Instruction (the successor to the Philharmonic). Dimitrescu was also a moving spirit in the field of chamber music. As founder of the first permanent quartet in Bucharest (1880), he held many concerts of music from the great Classical and Romantic literature. As cello teacher at the Bucharest Conservatory, he helped to form a Romanian cello school (among his disciples were Dimitrie Dinicu and George Georgescu)....