The composer, violinist and conductor Béla Kéler was born in Bardejov on 13 February 1820. After studies in Levoča, Debrecen and Prešov, he was hired as a violinist in the orchestra of the Vienna Theatre in 1845. A year later he published his first opus out of a total of 139 published compositions.
In 1854, Kéler's conducting career began in Johann Sommer's orchestra in Berlin and continued the following season in the Lanner Orchestra in Vienna. From 1856 to 1860 Kéler held the post of Kapellmeister of Count Mazzuchelli's military music. After a brief stint at the head of his own orchestra in Budapest, he left for Wiesbaden, where he lived and worked for the last twenty years of his life.
From 1863 he led the local orchestra of Duke Adolf I of Nassau and later the Spa Orchestra. From 1873 to 1882 he was guest conductor of orchestras in London, Manchester, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Paris, Munich, Munich, Berlin, Hamburg, Dresden, Leipzig and Zurich. He died on 20 November 1882 in Wiesbaden, where he is buried.
Source: belakeler.eu
Photo source: By Unknown author, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=21597281
Information
Music
