Berthold Damcke

He first studied theology and later music in Frankfurt as a pupil of Aloys Schmitt[1] who was appointed court organist and chamber musician of the Duke Adolph von Cambridge in Hanover in 1826[3] as well as Ferdinand Ries.

[1] Later, Damcke moved to Bad Kreuznach where he conducted the local Musikverein and the Liedertafel and wrote the Oratorio Deborah.

1] In 1845, Damcke went to St. Petersburg as a piano teacher, where he also developed a rich activity as a sensitive music critic and wrote extensive articles for the German-language St. Petersburgische Zeitung.

Damcke was friends with Hector Berlioz whom he had sponsored and whom he had already met in 1847 on the occasion of his guest performance in St.

[1] In Paris, he also taught under the later patronage of Fanny Pelletan,[5] who conceptually developed the complete edition of Christoph Willibald Gluck's works, suggested by Berlioz, and presented its first three volumes,[6] on which Damcke collaborated.