Georg Wilhelm Rauchenecker

Georg Wilhelm Rauchenecker (8 March 1844, in Munich[1] – 17 July 1906, in Elberfeld,[2] today part of Wuppertal) was a German composer, conductor and violinist.

[4] After this he attended the King Maximilian Grammar School in Munich[5] and here, at the age of eleven, he played first violin accompanying the church choir.

From 1869 he himself gave violin, piano and organ lessons, as well as teaching harmony, counterpoint, fugue and the theory of musical form, and orchestration.

[7] On 1 August 1860 Rauchenecker received a passport to travel to France: initially he went and worked as first violin at the Grand Théâtre de Lyon.

In 1868 Rauchenecker accepted a position in Avignon as chief conductor of the opera orchestra and director of the conservatoire.

He was introduced to Richard Wagner by his future brother-in-law, Oskar Kahl, the concertmaster of the Zürich City Orchestra.

Not long after this, on 31 December 1870, a series of 7 quartet evenings began at the Wagners' house, with Oskar Kahl (1st violin), Georg Rauchenecker (2nd violin), Hans Richter (viola) und Hermann Ruhoff (cello) rehearsing string quartets by Beethoven.

[15][16] On 3 April 1876 Rauchenecker's father Jakob died in Winterthur; then, on 18 February 1877, his daughter Helene was born.

[25] Among its students were the trombonist Joseph Franz Serafin Alschausky (1879–1948)[26] and the composer Gustav Adolf Uthmann [de] (1867–1920).