| Biography | He was born on August 16, 1843, at Louvain, where his father was chapelmaster at the Cathedral and from whom he receivedhis first musical tuition previous to his becoming a pupil of François Servais at the Brussels Conservatoire. Having obtained a first prize at that institution, the young artist undertook a series of successful Concert tours in the Scandinavian countries, Germany, and Switzerland, in the course of which he attracted the attention of Joachim by the masterly execution of his transposition of Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto. After short engagements at Dusseldorf and Weimar, he was, in 1865, appointed professor of the violoncello at the Berlin Hochschule whereof Dr. Joachim is the director, and also became solo violoncellist to the Emperor of Germany. In 1875 De Swert visited England and played with great success at the Crystal Palace and other places.
Having resigned his post at the Hochschule 1n 1877, he again undertook a series of Concert tours, in the course of which he revisited this country, and for the last few years he has been the Principal of the Academy of Music at Ostend. Jules de Swert, besides being a most brilliant and sympathetic virtuoso was a thorough musician, and as such has proved himself in numerous compositions for his instrument, as well as in his two operas--viz., "Die Albigenser," produced in 1878 with conspicuous success at Wiesbaden and also with a French translation of the libretto at Antwerp; and Der Graf von Hammerstein", which was performed on several German stages some years since. |