John Knowles Paine

John Knowles Paine (January 9, 1839 – April 25, 1906) was the first American-born composer to achieve fame for large-scale orchestral music.

The Boston Six's other five members were Amy Beach, Arthur Foote, Edward MacDowell, George Chadwick, and Horatio Parker.

His grandfather, an instrument maker, built the first pipe organ in the state of Maine and his father and uncles were all music teachers.

On arrival in Europe, Paine studied organ with Carl August Haupt and orchestration with Wilhelm Friedrich Wieprecht in Berlin.

He also toured Europe giving organ recitals for three years, establishing a reputation as an organist that preceded his return to the United States.

His service as a director of The New England Conservatory of Music (and the lectures he gave there) established his place at the root of an instruction chain that leads (through Eugene Thayer) from George Chadwick to Horatio Parker[2] to Charles Ives.

[7] John Knowles Paine was among the initial class of inductees into the American Classical Music Hall of Fame in 1998.