Jules Levy

Jules Levy (born April 24, 1838 in London , † November 28, 1903 in Chicago ) was a British-American composer and cornetist .

At the age of five he wanted to play cornet , but his father could not buy him an instrument with his modest financial means. It wasn't until he was 17 that he got a cornet. In 1856 he played in the Royal Band of HM Grenadier Guards and in 1860 he performed solos for 30 shillings a week during the breaks between performances at the Princess Theater in London. In 1861 he was already a member of the Royal Opera House Orchestra . He has also performed at the Crystal Palace and the Floral Hall . Between 1864 and 1876 he gave concerts all over Europe and was on a concert tour in the United States of America in 1866. In the summer of 1869 he was again in the United States of America and performed with the Theodore Thomas Orchestra in New York . In 1871 he played in Fiske's Cornet Band .

After attending a concert by the Fiske's Cornet Band , in which Jules Levy appeared as a soloist, Grand Duke Alexis of Russia invited him to his estate in Russia. There he was asked by the tsar whether he would like to become the conductor of the tsar's guard music and an imperial cornetist. He did not accept this offer, but stayed in Russia for 20 months before giving concerts at the London Promenade Concerts in Great Britain and later at the Hippodrome in New York City.

In 1876 he joined Henry Gilmore ’s Band and played daily at the World's Fair in Philadelphia . At the opening of the Brooklyn Bridge on May 24, 1883, he shone with a specially arranged version of The Star-Spangled Banner and Hail, Columbia .

From 1878 he made records with Edison as the first cornet player (15 for the Columbia label and 23 for the Victor label ). In 1892 he founded the Levy American Military Band , which did not last long because it was dissolved in 1895. He was then hired by the instrument manufacturer CG CONN in Elkhart , Indiana as an instrument tester and lectured cornet at the Conn Conservatory of Music . When he fell out with the company owner, he moved to Lyon Healy Band Instrument Company in Chicago.

In his early youth he composed several works that he performed over and over again.

Works

Works for cornet and wind orchestra

• Alice, Where Art Thou?
• Carnival of Venice special adaptation of the work of Jean-Baptiste Arban
• You, you with variations
• Grand Russian Fantasia
• Humoresque
• Levyathon Polka (Levy Athens Polka)
• Nearer, My God, to Thee
• Palm branches
• Robin Adair
• The Merry Birds
• Whirlwind Polka