Perabo, Ernst

1845-

Distinguished pianist, native of Wiesbaden, Germany, but a resident of America since 1852, when his family settled in New York. He was one of a musical family and began to study under his father when five years old. His studies were continued in New York, and there he made a brilliant debut at nine years of age. At Dover, New Hampshire, his next home, he took violin lessons from William Schultze, and, on his removal to Boston he appeared in a concert at the Music Hall. After that he lived in Chicago and Washington, and in 1858 was sent to Germany by Wm. Scharfenberg and other New Yorkers. At first he studied music and literature at Hamburg, then for four years with Professor Andresen at Eimsbuttel, and in 1862 entered the Leipsic Conservatory, where he took lessons in piano from Moscheles and Wenzel, in harmony from Papperitz, Hauptmann and Richter, and in composition from Reinecke. He won the Helbig prize and played at the public examination in 1865. That year he returned to America and gave concerts in a number of cities. At New York in 1866 he won great success, and has since played annually at the Harvard concerts and often at the Boston Symphony concerts. He is now teaching in Boston. He has published collections of piano-music for students; transcriptions of the ballads, The Dance of the Dead; Melek at the Spring; and The Secluded; all by Lowe; besides concert arrangements of Rubinstein's Dimitri Donpskoi and the first movement of his Ocean symphony, of Schumann's uncompleted symphony, and selections from Sullivan's lolanthe. His original compositions include Moment Musicale; waltz; two scherzos; prelude; introduction and f andante; pensee fugutive and pensees in G minor; Souvenir; Studies; and other short piano-pieces published in Germany as well as in this country.