Alexander Mackenzie (composer)

Sir Alexander Campbell Mackenzie ( born August 22, 1847 in Edinburgh, † April 28, 1935 in London) was a Scottish composer and conductor, student at the Conservatory in Sondershausen and from 1888 to 1924 director of the Royal Academy of Music.

Life

Mackenzie's father (1819-1857), who also bore the name Alexander, was a violinist and conductor at the Theatre Royal in Edinburgh and gave his son first music lessons. 1857 Alexander Mackenzie was sent for further musical training in Germany. In the residence Sondershausen taught him, among other Eduard Stone and Mackenzie was a violinist member of the royal orchestra of Schwarzburg- Sondershausen. From 1862 he continued his studies on a scholarship at the Royal Academy of Music in London, among others at Prosper Sainton to return to Edinburgh after graduation in 1865 again. There he worked as a teacher, conductor and choirmaster of St George 's Church. From the 1870s, he found increasing attention as a composer; so led 1878 Hans von Bülow, his overture to Cervantes in Glasgow.

Since 1879 Mackenzie lived for health reasons mainly in Florence, where he mainly devoted himself to the composition, the performance of his works but also repeated after England reiste.1888 he was appointed director of the Royal Academy of Music, and had this important position in English musical life, in which he worked not only as a composer but also as a teacher and conductor, held until 1924. In 1895 he was raised to the peerage.

Work

Mackenzies of late Romanticism to associate with that work as a composer includes, among other operas and oratorios 5 and choral cantatas. There are also orchestral works, including a violin concerto, and partly programmatic or national character, eg three Scottish Rhapsodies and a Scottish Concerto for Piano. In addition, Mackenzie wrote chamber music, piano works and songs.

1927 memoirs were published under the title A Musician's Narrative at Cassell in London Mackenzie.