Isidore Lotto was a Polish violinist, composer, and music educator. He studied at the Paris Conservatory with Lambert Massart in violin and Ambroise Thomas in composition. He gave his first concert in Warsaw in 1857.
In 1862, Lotto was appointed violinist and chamber musician at the court of the Duke of Saxe-Weimar. From 1872, he taught at the Strasbourg Conservatory. He returned to Poland in 1880 and taught for many years at the Warsaw Conservatory. His students included Bronislaw Huberman and Richard Burgin.
Lotto’s compositions, now largely forgotten, include his Fantasia on the Russian National Anthem, Op. 1, published in Leipzig in 1861, five violin concertos, and fantasies, variations, and other concert pieces for violin. He also wrote cadenzas for concertos by Viotti, Paganini, and Mendelssohn. Joseph Levin published an obituary of Lotto, titled “Lotto—Friend of Kings,” in the American Hebrew.