Ignaz Lachner

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Ignaz Lachner was a German composer and conductor.

Lachner was born into a musical family on September 17, 1807 in Rain am Lech. His father Anton was an organist and gave him his first violin lessons. Lachner's brothers Franz and Vinzenz, and stepbrother Theodor, were also composers.

Receiving his first taste of popular acclaim as a six-year old virtuoso on the violin, Lachner found employment at the Isartortheater in Munich at the age of fifteen. In 1826, he became organist at the Reformed Church in Vienna and then a member of the orchestra at the Hofoperntheater. He was appointed a Music Director in Stuttgart in 1831 and soon thereafter in Munich. From 1853, Lachner served as a Kapellmeister in Hamburg and moved into the same position again in 1861 at the Stadttheater in Frankfurt, from which he retired in 1875. He died on February 25, 1895, in Hanover.

Of his compositions, his Alpine Scenes (for example, Das letzte Fensterln) enjoyed particular public approval. He also wrote two operas, sonatas, string quartets, and many lieder.