WILHELMJ, Vel-he1'1116, AUGUST (1845—). A German-English violinist and conductor. He was horn at. Usingen, in Nassau, and received his first lessons on the violin from Conrad Fischer, Court conduetor to the Duke of Nassau at Wies baden. At the age of eight he played in quartets, and on January S. 1854, made his first public ap pearance at a concert given at Limburg-on-the Lahn, and two years later caused a great sen sation with his skillful playing at the Court theatre of Wiesbaden. From 1861 to 1S64 he studied under Richter and Hanptinann, at the Leipzig Conservatory, and subsequently under Raff aq, Wiesbaden. Throughout his entire Ca reer as a student, however, Ferdinand Davis, to whom he had been taken by Liszt, superintended his studies. In 1865 he made a tour of Switzer land, and the following year visited Holland and England, in 1877 France and Italy, and in 1878 Russia, in which latter country he became ac quainted with Berlioz. In 1874 he toured Nor way, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, and Austria, and made a long stay in England. In 1876 he was
concertmeister of the Bayreuth orchestra during the production of Der Ring des ibelungen. Prob ably his most successful and enthusiastic tour was that of the United States from 1878 to 1882. Other tours in European countries followed up to 1892, when he permanently settled in London as professor of violin at the Guildhall School of Music. Ile has been an important facto• in the development of orchestral music and concerts in England, and notably in the great Wagner Fes tival held in the Royal Albert hall in May, 1877, for which event he was able to secure the per sonal attendance and conducto•ship of Wagner himself, and at the same time introduced Hans Richter to the British public. His only pub lished works are: Hoehzeits-Cantate, for soli, chorus, and orchestra, a violin concerto, a few instrumental piece, and a number of transcrip tions from Bach, Chopin, and Wagner.