STEINFELDT, JOHN MATHIAS (1864-1946). John Mathias Steinfeldt, musician, composer, and teacher, was born in the village of Ankum, near Hanover, Germany, on August 18, 1864, the son of Sophia (Zimmerman) and Henry Steinfeldt. When he was ten his family immigrated to Cincinnati, Ohio, where he attended public schools. He received an art scholarship to the Cincinnati School of Design, studied piano and harmony in the College of Music in Cincinnati, and attended Dayton College in Dayton, Ohio. He also studied music in New York and Paris. Steinfeldt moved to San Antonio in 1887, became assistant organist at San Fernando Cathedral,^qv and was organist at the Jewish Temple Beth-El and the First Baptist Church. A few years after his arrival, he became organist at St. Mary's Catholic Church, a position he held for more than fifty years. In 1920 he founded the San Antonio College of Music, where he taught piano and pipe organ; he also held classes in Eagle Pass and Laredo. He appeared several times as a soloist with the San Antonio Symphony Orchestra^qv and the Chicago Symphony. Among his compositions were a number of concert pieces, The Song of the River (a chorus for women's voices), and Missa Maria Immaculata or Mass in G, the dedication Mass for the new St. Mary's Church. Steinfeldt was awarded a prize by the Texas Federation of Music Clubs^qv for his San Antonio-inspired composition La Concepción. He was married to Vivia May Ripley on July 10, 1893, in San Antonio. They were the parents of four children. Steinfeldt died on February 28, 1946; a requiem Mass was offered for him at St. Mary's Cemetery in San Antonio.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Ellis A. Davis and Edwin H. Grobe, comps., The New Encyclopedia of Texas (4 vols., 1929?). San Antonio Evening News, March 1, 1946. San Antonio Express, March 1, 1946. St. Mary's Church Bulletin, San Antonio, September 1924. Who's Who among the Women of San Antonio and Southwest Texas (San Antonio: Fenwick, 1917).