Herman Bellstedt (February 12, 1858, Bremen – June 8, 1926, San Francisco) was a well-known American

cornet The cornet (, ) is a brass instrument similar to the trumpet but distinguished from it by its conical bore, more compact shape, and mellower tone quality. The most common cornet is a transposing instrument in B. There is also a soprano cor ...

soloist.

Early life

He was born in the

Free and Hanseatic City of Bremen Bremen (), officially the Free Hanseatic League#Lists of former Hansa cities, Hanseatic City of Bremen (; ), is the smallest and least populous of States of Germany, Germany's 16 states. It is informally called ('State of Bremen'), although the ...

. He immigrated to

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ; colloquially nicknamed Cincy) is a city in Hamilton County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. Settled in 1788, the city is located on the northern side of the confluence of the Licking River (Kentucky), Licking and Ohio Ri ...

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

at age nine. He studied the cornet with his father, who was also a cornetist, and Mylius Weigand. As a young boy, he performed with local bands.

Career

After giving his first performance on May 10, 1873 at the Atlantic Garden at age 15, he quickly began performing across the country in various bands and orchestra and was nicknamed the "Boy Wonder". In 1874, he began his career with the Cincinnati Reed Band until 1879. In 1879, he started performing with the Red Hussar Band on Manhattan Beach and returned to the Cincinnati Reed Band in 1883. From 1904 to 1906, he performed with the John Philip Sousa Band, sharing solos with

Herbert L. Clarke Herbert Lincoln Clarke (September 12, 1867 – January 30, 1945) was an American cornetist, feature soloist, bandmaster, and composer. He is considered the most prominent cornetist of his time. Clarke's legacy includes composing a portion of t ...

and

Walter B. Rogers Walter Bowman Rogers (October 14, 1865 – December 24, 1939) was an American cornet player, concert band and orchestral conductor and composer, who was responsible for most of the orchestral arrangements on recordings made for the Victor Talk ...

. He also performed with the Frederick N. Innes Band from 1906 to 1909. He also performed with Gilmore's Band, orchestras conducted by Theodore Thomas,

Frank Van der Stucken Frank Valentine Van der Stucken (October 15, 1858 – August 16, 1929) was a Belgian-American composer, conductor, and founding conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra in 1895. Biography Van der Stucken was born in Fredericksburg, Texas ...

, and

Henry Schradieck Henry Schradieck (29 April 1846 – 25 May 1918) was a German violinist, music pedagogue and composer. He was one of the foremost violin teachers of his day. He wrote a series of etude books for the violin which are still in common use tod ...

. He co-founded the Bellstedt-Ballenger Band in

Denver Denver ( ) is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Consolidated city and county, consolidated city and county, the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Colorado, most populous city of the U.S. state of ...

in 1892 with Louis Ballenberger and served as its conductor until 1912. Bellstedt served as Professor of Wind Instruments at the

Cincinnati Conservatory The Cincinnati Conservatory of Music was a Music school, conservatory, part of a girls' finishing school, founded in 1867 in Cincinnati, Ohio. It merged with the College of Music of Cincinnati in 1955, forming the University of Cincinnati – Col ...

. In addition to performing, Bellstedt composed for band, orchestra, piano, violin, and cornet. His cornet solos remain popular with today's trumpeters and include Napoli (Variations on a Neapolitan Song), Fantasia No.1, La Coquette, Capriccio Brilliante, La Mandolinata, and Variations on the Carnival of Venice. On June 8, 1926, Bellstedt died in

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

References

External links

* 1858 births American cornetists 1926 deaths Immigrants to the United States Musicians from Cincinnati People from the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen {{brass-musician-stub