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Texas conductor leads farewell concert in Antwerp
On this day in 1927, Frank Van der Stucken, composer and conductor, gave
his farewell symphonic concert in the hall of the Royal Society of
Zoology in Antwerp. The child of Belgian immigrants to Castro's Colony,
he was born in Fredericksburg, Texas, in 1858. His family returned to
Antwerp in 1866. By age sixteen he had completed two major original
works. After a visit to Wagner's Bayreuth Festival in 1876, Van der
Stucken settled in Leipzig, Germany, for two years of study with Carl
Reinecke, Victor Langer, and Edvard Grieg. Grieg was the first of a
number of important composers to befriend the young composer and
conductor; among the others were Franz Liszt, Giuseppe Verdi, Emmanuel
Chabrier, and Jules Massenet. Van der Stucken returned to America in
1884, where he became director of the New York Arion Society, a male
chorus. He also worked with other German male choruses in the Sängerbund
movement. In April 1885 in New York City he conducted the first concert
in this country devoted exclusively to works by American composers, and
in 1889 he conducted the first European concert with an entirely
American program at the World Exposition in Paris. In 1895 Van der
Stucken moved to Cincinnati to become the first conductor of the
Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, a post he held until 1907. From 1907
until his death in 1929, Van der Stucken lived in Germany and worked
throughout Europe, where he was in great demand as a conductor of
festivals.
- Links to Related Handbook of Texas Online Articles
- VAN DER STUCKEN, FRANK VALENTINE
- CASTRO'S COLONY
- FREDERICKSBURG, TX
- GERMAN MUSIC
- Links to other Web sites (will be opened in new browser window)
- Handbook of Texas Music
- Other Texas Day by Day Articles for This Date
- Higher education develops in Beaumont (1923)
- Fort Worth Stockyards incorporated (1893)
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