William Gilchrist

William Wallace Gilchrist ( born January 8, 1846 in Jersey City, New Jersey, † December 20, 1916 ) was an American composer.

Gilchrist came to Philadelphia as a child, where until 1868 he studied with Hugh Archibald Clarke 1865. At this time he also served as baritone soloist at the Holy Trinity Church and St. Mark's Church and has performed in operettas, which were given in the Amateur Drawing Room.

In 1874 he became organist and choirmaster at St. Clement 's Church. In the same year he founded the Mendelssohn Club of Philadelphia, an association for the performance of musical works, which began as eight -voice male choir, but soon to female voices and instruments was expanded. In addition, Gilchrist took further choirs and was the organist at Christ Church in German Town, and at times at the Church of the New Jerusalem.

He was a founding member of the American Guild of Organists and the Music Manuscript Society and founded in 1893, the Symphony Society of Philadelphia, which he conducted until 1899. In addition, he taught vocal training at the Philadelphia Musical Academy.

Gilchrist composed two symphonies, choral works and chamber music. At the Cincinnati May Festival in 1882, the jury Camille Saint- Saëns and Carl Reinecke, he received the first prize for the setting of the 46th Psalm.

His son William Wallace Gilchrist, Jr. was known as a painter.