Dr. Damrosch was a remarkable man. He was born in Posen, Prussia,
on October 22, 1832. He studied music in the home circle, like the
generality of German lads, but his parents had chosen the profession of
medicine for him, and he had acquiesced in the choice, matriculating
in the medical department of the University of Berlin after he had
completed the usual gymnasial course of studies. He had not abandoned
his love for music, though he so devoted himself to medicine that in
due course he was graduated with honors and received his degree.
Incidentally, like Schumann at Heidelberg, he continued to study music,
Hubert Ries being his teacher in violin playing, and the venerable
Professor Dehn in counterpoint and composition. After graduation he
returned to his native Posen to practise medicine, and remained there
thus occupied till 1854.

In 1855 the physician's earlier and stronger love for music achieved the
mastery over his adopted profession, and he started out into the world
as a concert violinist. He played at Magdeburg and at Berlin, where his
talents were so much admired that on the recommendation of friends in
the Prussian capital he went to Weimar, where he won the friendship
of Liszt and joined the body of enthusiastic young musicians--Peter
Cornelius and others--who had rallied around the great musician and were
fighting the battles of the new German school. His musical creed was
formed here, as he himself confessed in a series of articles written for
the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik. His first official appointment was as
director of the music at the Stadttheater in Posen, and in 1866 he was
called to fill the same post at Breslau. After he had resigned this
position he remained in Breslau as director of the Orchesterverein,
which he called into existence until he accepted the call of the
Männergesangverein Arion in New York in 1871. Though Dr. Damrosch had
achieved a European reputation before he came to New York, his best