violin

Erkki Melartin (Feb. 7, 1875 - Feb. 14, 1937) was a Finnish composer, conductor, and teacher. He studied in Helsinki fro 1893 to 1899 with Martin Wegelius, and with Robert Fuchs,in Vienna, from 1899 to 1901 Continue reading →

Reinhold Moritzevich Glière (Jan. 11, 1875 - June 23, 1956) was a Russian/Soviet composer and violinist born in Kiev, of German-Polish descent. Son of a wind instrument maker, Glière's father noticed his son's talent, and enrolled him in the Kiev School of Music, where he played violin. In 1894 he entered the Moscow Conservatory, and graduated in 1900, after composing a one act opera entitled...

Giovanni Bottesini (Dec. 22, 1821 - July 7, 1889) was an Italian conductor, composer, and double bass virtuoso, born in to a musical family. Continue reading →

Arthur William Foote (March 5, 1853 - April 8, 1937) was an organist, pianist, and composer born in Salem, Massachusetts. Foote was part of the Second New England School, more commonly known as the Boston Six, along with Amy Beach, George Whitefield Chadwick, Edward MacDowell, John Knowles Paine, and Horatio Parker. Foote, unlike the others in the Boston Six, was trained entirely in America, and his main teacher was Paine. Continue reading →

Horatio William Parker (Sept. 15, 1863 - December 18, 1919 )was an American composer, teacher, and organist, who came to be a part of the Second New England School, also commonly known as the Boston Six, along with Amy Beach, George Whitefield Chadwick, Arthur Foote, Edward MacDowell, and John Knowles Paine. Continue reading →

Amy Marcy Cheney Beach (Sept. 5, 1867 - December 27, 1944) was an American composer and pianist.  Extremely gifted from a young age, Beach's talents seemed to run in the family, with various members playing instruments or singing, and showing great aptitude for music. Continue reading →

Marie-Juliette Olga "Lili" Boulanger (Aug. 21, 1893 - March 15, 1918) was a French composer, and  the younger sister of the famed composition teacher/composer Nadia Boulanger. Born in Paris, Lili Boulanger was a child prodigy; at the age of two, it was discovered that she had perfect pitch. Her parents, both musicians, encouraged her musical education, and she would accompany her sister Nadia to classes at the Paris Conservatory, studying music theory and organ. Her sister Nadia was one of her teachers, and later on studied with Paul Vidal, George Caussade, and Gabriel Faure, who was particularly impressed by her abilities. Lili would go on to win the Prix de Rome at the age of 19; she was the first woman to ever win the composition prize. Tragically, she died at the young age of 24. Continue reading →

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (Aug. 15, 1875 - Sept. 1, 1912) was born in London, England, to Alice Hare Martin, an English woman, and Dr. Daniel Peter Hughes Taylor, from Sierre Leone. They were not married, and Daniel Taylor returned to Africa before 1875, not even knowing he had a son. Martin named her son after the poet, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and was raised in Croydon, Surrey by his mother, and her father. Coleridge-Taylor studied violin at the Royal College of Music, and was later on appointed a professor at the Crystal Palace School of Music, and conducted the orchestra at the Croyden Conservatory. Continue reading →

Franz Wohlfahrt (March 7, 1833 - Feb. 14, 1884) was a violin teacher and composer, born, and died in Leipzig, Germany. Continue reading →

Sir Arnold Edward Trevor Bax (Nov. 8, 1883 - Oct. 3, 1953) was an English poet, author, and composer. His output was prolific, and spanned several genres, from choral works to chamber pieces to orchestral music. His music was for a while neglected, and then revived, though predominantly as recordings; we still don't see his work programmed very often in concert halls, save a few compositions. Continue reading →