Zelter, Carl Friedrich (1758–1832)

German conductor, teacher, and composer. He taught at the Berlin Sinakademie from 1800, where he did much to revive interest in Johann Sebastian Bach's music, and founded the Royal Institute of Church Music in 1822. He was a personal friend of Goethe, many of whose poems he set. He wrote principally songs, also church music, cantatas, and instrumental music.

Having completed his training as a master mason, Zelter joined his father's firm, and abandoned the trade completely only in 1815, but meanwhile was active as a musician. He studied with Schultz and Fasch, and succeeded the latter as conductor of the Berlin Singakademie in 1800. In 1809 he founded the Berliner Liedertafel, in the same year became professor at the academy, and in 1822 founded the Royal Institute of Church Music. Among his pupils were Nicolai, Loewe, Meyerbeer, and Mendelssohn, whose plans to revive Bach's St Matthew Passion in 1829 he at first opposed but later approved. He rejected Schubert's Lieder.