Henschel, (Sir) George
Henschel, Sir George
HENSCHEL, SIR GEORGE
HENSCHEL, SIR GEORGE (Isidor Georg ; 1850–1934), conductor, singer, and teacher. He was born in Breslau and was active until shortly before his death as a conductor and singer. He was successively during his career a tenor, baritone, basso, and basso profundo. Henschel was the first conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra (1881–84), founded the London Symphony Concerts (1886–97), conducted the Scottish Symphony Orchestra (1893–95), and taught singing at the Royal College of Music and the Institute of Musical Art in New York. He composed an opera, a requiem mass, and songs, and wrote Personal Recollections of Johannes Brahms (1907) and the autobiography Musings and Memories of a Musician (1918). He converted to Christianity in his youth. He was knighted in 1914.