 On Zelter 's death in 1832 , Mendelssohn had hopes of succeeding him as conductor of the Sing @-@ Akademie zu Berlin . However , at a vote in January 1833 he was defeated for the post by the less distinguished Carl Friedrich Rungenhagen . This may have been because of Mendelssohn 's youth , and fear of possible innovations ; it was also suspected by some to be attributable to his Jewish ancestry . Following this rebuff , Mendelssohn divided most of his professional time over the next few years between Britain and Düsseldorf , where he was appointed musical director ( his first paid post as a musician ) in 1833 . 
