Elsner, (Ksawery) Józef (1769-1854)

Polish composer of Swedish descent. Intended for a career in medicine, he had little music teaching in his youth but learnt the violin and some harmony at Breslau (Wrocław, Poland) and studied more assiduously on going to Vienna, Austria. In 1791 he became violinist at the Brno theatre, Moravia (Czech Republic), and the next year conductor at Lwów (Lviv, Ukraine). He went to Warsaw, Poland, as theatre conductor in 1799, establishing a music society there in 1815 and became the first director of the Conservatory opened in 1821. He was the formative teacher of Chopin.

Works 27 operas (22 in Polish), Król Łokietek (1818), ballets and melodramas; Stabat Mater, church music; 11 symphonies; six string quartets; instrumental pieces.