Lewis Henry Lavenu
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Lewis Henry Lavenu (1818-1859) was an English composer, conductor, musician and impresario.
Born in London in 1818, the only son of Lewis Lavenu, a music publisher to the Prince Regent by his second wife Eliza. Shortly after his birth his father died and his mother Eliza went into business with the violinist Nicholas Mori, a pupil of Viotti by whom she had 5 children, although they weren't married until 1826 (in St. Pauls, Covent Garden). Lavenu studied the cello with the French harpist Nicolas-Charles Bochsa at the Royal Academy of Music. In 1840 Lavenu arranged two tours of the British Isles for the composer and pianist Franz Liszt, accompanied by his half brother Frank Mori, two female singers and John Orlando Parry, an all round musician, singer and entertainer (who vividly recorded the tour in his diary). Between August 17 and September 26, they gave 50 concerts around England which were generally unsuccessful, having an average attendance of 140. The second tour which encompassed Liverpool, Ireland and Scotland from November 1840- January 1841 was mildly more successful, with audiences of more than 1200 in Dublin. The tour was however a financial failure, and Lizst waived his promised 500 guineas a month fee.
Lavenu spent the 1840s mostly in London, performing and conducting concerts. After becoming insolvent in 1848, he became the conductor and manager of the Irish singer Catherine Hayes, arranging world wide appearances in Great Britain, the United States (1851-1852) and in Australia (1855). Lavenu stayed in Sydney becoming the musical director of the Sydney Theatre, and died in Macquarie Street in 1859, being buried in Camperdown cemetery alongside his tutor Bochsa, and his fellow English composer Isaac Nathan.
Lavenu had 8 children with Julia, daughter of Col. John Blossett, head of the British expedition which aided Simón Bolívar in the wars of independence. His daughters Ada, Eliza, Alice and Bessie were actresses in London during the 1860s, Eliza becoming more successful, appearing at the Royal Lyceum Theatre. She was mother of the actor Tyrone Power, Sr., and grandmother of the Hollywood star Tyrone Power.
