Scheel, Fritz
Scheel, Fritz
Schell, fritz, German conductor; b. Lübeck, Nov. 7, 1852; d. Philadelphia, March 13, 1907. His grandfather and father were orch. conductors, and at 9 the boy played the violin in his father’s orch.; from 1864 to 1867 he was a pupil of F. David in Leipzig. At 17 he began his career as a concertmaster and conductor at Bremerhaven. In 1873 he was solo violinist and conductor of the summer concerts in Schwerin, and in 1884 he became conductor of the Chemnitz municipal orch.; from 1890 to 1893 he was conductor of orch. concerts in Hamburg. He went to the U.S. in 1893, and after conducting the Trocadero concerts at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago (1894), he served as founder-conductor of the San Francisco Sym. Society (1895–99); subsequently was the first conductor of the Philadelphia Orch. (1900–07).
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire