Sobolwski Edward (actually, Johann Friedrich Eduard)
Sobolwski Edward (actually, Johann Friedrich Eduard)
Sobolewski, Edward (actually, Johann Friedrich Eduard), German-born American violinist, conductor, and composer of Polish descent; b. Königsberg, Oct. 1, 1804; d. St. Louis, May 17, 1872. He was a composition pupil of Zelter in Berlin and of Weber in Dresden (1821–24). He became an opera conductor in Königsberg (1830), and was founder-conductor of the orch. of the Philharmonische Gesellschaft (from 1838) and conductor of the choir of the Academy of Music (from 1843); subsequently was director of music at the Bremen Theater (from 1854). In 1859 he emigrated to the U.S., settling in Milwaukee, then a center of German musical immigrants; was founder-conductor of the Milwaukee Phil. Soc. Orch. (1860). He then settled in St. Louis, where he conducted the Phil. Soc. (1860–66); was prof. of vocal music at Bonham’s Female Seminary (from 1869). His works include the operas Imogen (1833), Velleda (1836), Salvator Rosa (1848), Komala (Weimar, Oct. 30, 1858), Mohega, die Blume des Waldes (Milwaukee, Oct. 11, 1859, to his own libretto, in German, on an American subject dealing with an Indian girl saved by Pulaski from death), and An die Freude (Milwaukee, 1859), as well as oratorios, symphonic poems, oratorios and other choral works, songs, etc.
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire