Felix Mendelssohn(-Bartholdy)
(1809 - 1847)

Born February 2, 1809 in Hamburg and died November 4, 1847 in Leipzig.

Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy was the son of a Jewish banker, though he himself converted to Christianity later.

His mother gave him the rudiments of music, and then he had various private teachers. His brother and two sisters were also accomplished musicians.

He made his debut as a pianist in Berlin in 1818, at the age of nine, and from 1824 he also studied violin.

In Paris in 1825 he won a wide circle of musical and poetic friends, and with his Octet and the Midsummer Night's Dream Overture the following year he established himself as a major composer. He also studied philosophy and geography.

In 1829 he first visited Britain, going to Scotland and the Hebrides and meeting Sir Walter Scott. Afterwards he made a Grand Tour, taking in Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Germany and France before returning to England in 1832.

He next became conductor of the Lower Rhine Festival, reviving many neglected works, and in 1835 became musical director at the Leipzig Gewandhaus. He made further journeys to England in 1837 and 1840, playing and conducting, and becoming a favorite of Queen Victoria; his Scottish Symphony is dedicated to her.

He became Kapellmeister in Berlin at the behest of Frederick William IV in 1841, and founded the Leipzig Conservatory in 1843. His many commitments affected his health, and after the first performance of Elijah in Birmingham he returned exhausted to Leipzig. He still continued to work, but a series of severe fits killed him.