Music
Max Bendix
1866–1945 · violinist, conductor, teacher
Detroit-born violinist who became the first concertmaster of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and gave the American premiere of Dvořák's Violin Concerto in 1891.
- Born
Detroit, Michigan- Died
Chicago, Illinois
aged 79- Detroit years
- 1866–1872
- Field
- Music
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Bendix was born in Detroit in 1866 to German-born Jewish parents; his father William Bendix was a composer, and his mother Bertha was a cousin of Felix Mendelssohn. The family moved to Cleveland in 1872. A prodigy, he played his first solo at eight and graduated from the Cincinnati Conservatory with the gold medal at fourteen. At twelve he was already playing in Theodore Thomas's orchestra at the Cincinnati May Festival, and he went on to lead the violins of opera companies and orchestras in Philadelphia and New York, including Anton Seidl's German Opera. From 1886 to 1896 he was concertmaster, soloist and assistant conductor of the Theodore Thomas Orchestra, and when it became the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 1891 he was its first concertmaster. That October he gave the American premiere of Dvořák's Violin Concerto in Chicago. He later led the Metropolitan Opera orchestra, and in 1899 the Musical Courier called him the finest American violinist.
Highlights
- First concertmaster of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, 1891–1896
- U.S. premiere of Dvořák's Violin Concerto, Chicago, 1891
- Concertmaster of the Metropolitan Opera orchestra
- Called 'the finest American violinist' by the Musical Courier (1899)