Leopold Damrosch (October 22, 1832 – February 15, 1885) was a German American orchestral conductor and composer. Biography Damrosch was born in Posen (Poznań), Kingdom of Prussia, the son of Heinrich Damrosch. His father was Jewish and his mother was Lutheran. Leopold Damrosch was baptized a Lutheran when marrying his wife, former opera singer Helene von Heimburg. Damrosch began his musical education at the age of nine, learning the violin against the wishes of his parents, who wanted him to become a doctor. Capitulating to the wishes of his parents he entered the University of Berlin and completed his PhD in medicine but during his spare time he studied violin under Ries, and thoroughbass with Dehn and Bohmer. After he completed his degree Damrosch decided to dedicate his life and energy to music. He gained fame as a violinist and began to play to large audiences in many major German cities including Berlin and Hamburg. He went to Weimar, and was received by Franz Liszt, who appointed him solo-violinist in the Ducal orchestra. It has been said mistakenly that Liszt dedicated his Symphonic poem Tasso: lamento e trionfo) to Damrosch. However, Liszt did dedicate the similarly named Le Triomphe funèbre du Tasse, the third part of Trois odes funèbres, to Damrosch who conducted the first performance in New York on March 24, 1877. Damrosch first appeared as a conductor during the season of 1859 where he conducted the Philharmonic concerts in Breslau. He continued to conduct the Philharmonic for three years due to the success of this season. In 1862 Damrosch founded a symphonic society in Breslau with an orchestra of eighty performers, modelled after the Gewandhaus concerts of Leipzig. This society gained fame throughout Germany and Damrosch invited Liszt to conduct several of the performances, an invitation which he accepted. Richard Wagner also accepted the invitation to conduct his own manuscript compositions in the winter of 1867. In 1871, Damrosch emigrated to the United States of America at the invitation of the Arion Society of New York. At his first concerts in the United States he introduced himself as conductor, composer, and violinist. At his successful debut in New York on 6 May 1871, Damrosch played as violin soloist at the first time with the New York Philharmonic, performing Beethoven's Violin Concerto with his own cadenza on the program at the Academy of Music. He participated in many concerts