Mills, Sebastian Bach

1838-1898

Piano virtuoso of unusual ability, who attained great popularity in America; born in Cirencester, England. His English instructors were Cipriani Potter and Sterndale Bennett, and at the age of seven he had so far progressed as to play before Queen Victoria. At the Leipsic Con- servatory he was a pupil of Moscheles, Plaidy, Mayer, Rietz and Hauptmann, and later he became one of the young men of Liszt's circle at Weimar. In 1855 he was made organist of the Roman Catholic Cathedral in Sheffield. In 1858 he appeared as soloist at a Gewandhaus concert in Leipsic, and in 1859 he came to the United States on a concert tour that proved so successful that he decided to settle here. He was a great favorite in New York, and from 1859 to 1877 appeared every season in concerts of the Philharmonic Society, of which he became honorary member in 1866. In 1859, 1867 and 1878 he made concert tours through Germany, each time being warmly received. He died in Wiesbaden, Germany. He was a most successful teacher and has done much for the promotion of music in New York. All of his compositions are for piano and are graceful and light in form. Some of them are Alpine Horn, transcription; Murmuring Fountain; two Tarantelles; Recollections of Home; Fairy Fingers; the polka, Toujours gai; and Barcarole venitienne. Besides the Philharmonic Society, Mills was a member of the Tonkünstler Verein of Cologne, and of the Arion Society of New York.