Eduard Remenyi

Eduard Remenyi (Eduard Hoffmann) was a Hungarian violinist and composer born on January 17, 1828 (Beethoven was already dead but Paganini was 45 years old.) He studied under Joseph Bohm (Joachim's teacher) at the Vienna Conservatory from 1842 to 1845. His specialty was playing for private audiences. He participated in the Hungarian Revolution of 1848 (on the losing side) and was subsequently evicted from Austria. In 1851, he came to the U.S. and worked as a free-lance violinist for a couple of years. He returned to Europe in 1853, befriended Franz Liszt for a time, and ended up in England in 1854 where he was appointed solo violinist to Queen Victoria. In 1860, he returned to Hungary where he was then made violin soloist to Emperor Franz Joseph. In 1865, he undertook a tour of Europe. He lived in Paris for six years (1871-1877) then in London and finally crossed the ocean again in 1881 and played in the U.S. and the rest of the Western Hemisphere. From 1886, he concertized throughout the world, by then having established himself and his family in New York City. On the afternoon of May 15, 1898, he was playing a vaudeville show (with orchestra) at the Orpheum Theatre in San Francisco when, after playing three pieces, he fell over dead on stage. He was 70 years old.