Antonín Bennewitz
Antonín Bennewitz (26 March 1833 – 29 May 1926) was a Czech violinist, conductor, and music teacher. He was the son of a German father and a Czech mother.
Bennewitz graduated from the Prague Conservatory in 1852, having studied violin with Moritz Mildner. From 1852 to 1861 he played violin in Prague’s Estates Theatre, while also appearing as a soloist in various European countries.
As an ensemble musician, he took part in the premiere of Bedřich Smetana’s Piano Trio, Op. 15, on 3 December 1855, performing with cellist Julius Goltermann and Smetana at the piano. He later became first violinist of the Pixis String Quartet, succeeding his former teacher Mildner at its desk.
As a conductor, Bennewitz gave early performances of Antonín Dvořák’s symphonic poems The Water Goblin, The Noon Witch, and The Golden Spinning Wheel at a semi-private concert on 3 June 1896.
From 1865 he was a professor at the Prague Conservatory, serving as its director from 1882 to 1901. The conservatory’s official website describes his leadership as a golden age. He was also among the founders of the Kammermusikverein, whose national ideals prompted Smetana to write his E minor string quartet From My Life.
His pupils included leading Czech musicians of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, among them Otakar Ševčík, Franz Lehár, Oskar Nedbal, Josef Suk, František Ondříček, Karel Halíř, and the Russian composer of Czech descent Andrei Kadlec.