Damrosch, Leopold : 1832-1885

Damrosch, Leopold (1832-1885)
composer and conductor, was born in Posen, Prussia.  In 1854, he gave up medicine to study music,  in 1885, he appeared as a concert violinist in Magdeburg.  He became director in Posen and Breslau.  In 1871, he came to New York as director of the Arion Society, where in 1873, he founded the Oratorio Society and in 1877, the Symphony Society.  In 1844, he successfully established German opera at the Metropolitan Opera House, producing Fidelio, Tannhäuser, Lohengrin, Die Walküre, and other works.  His musical compositions comprise works for the violin, an overture, several cantatas, and songs.  He died at New York.

~ The Lincoln Library of Essential Information, Volume 2, Thirty-Fifth Edition, 1972, Biography, Page 1780.

You can visit the memorial page for Leopold Damrosch.