Jacques Mazas

Jacques Fereol Mazas was a French violinist, composer, conductor, and teacher born on September 23, 1782 (Beethoven was 12 years old.) Mazas studied at the Paris Conservatory with Pierre Baillot and received a first prize from that school in 1805. In 1808, he played an early violin concerto dedicated to him by Daniel Auber, who was later to become a very popular and famous composer. Mazas then concertized extensively all over Europe. In 1831, he accepted the post of concertmaster with the Royal Theatre. Soon afterward, he was appointed Director of Concerts in the city of Orleans, where he worked at the Comic Opera Theatre. From 1837 to 1841, he was director of the Conservatory in Cambrai, a very small city in northern France. Mazas’ compositions for violin are mostly studies and duets for students of varying abilities - they can be said to form a course of study for violinists. They were very popular in the early part of the Twentieth Century and are still in print. It can be said that Mazas wrote for the masses. He died on August 26, 1849, at age 66. (I don't really know if that's Mazas on the left. Perhaps it is.)