Eugène Goossens, père

Eugène Goossens ( born February 25, 1845 in Bruges, † December 30 1906 in Liverpool) was a Belgian conductor.

Life

Eugène Goossens was nine years old at the Conservatory in Bruges, and moved at the age of 14 years at the Brussels Conservatory. There he studied violin with Lambert -Joseph Meert (1800-1863), and then composition, harmony and counterpoint with François -Joseph Fétis. In 1870 he completed his studies and has conducted several opera companies in Belgium, France and Italy. He went in 1873 as an opera and operetta conductor to England and served there as assistant conductor of the Carl Rosa Company, which he headed from 1889 after the death of Carl Rosa. In the same year he conducted the British premiere of Wagner's Tannhäuser in Liverpool. In 1893 he settled in Liverpool, where he founded the Goossens - male choir, which focused primarily on a Belgian repertoire. Goossens also worked as a singing teacher and organist.

He was father of the same conductor and violinist Eugène Goossens (1867-1958) and grandfather of the composer and conductor Sir Eugene Aynsley Goossens ( 1893-1962 ).