Walter Rothwell
Walter Rothwell was an English conductor and pianist, and the first music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. He was born in London to an English father and an Austrian mother. After initial instruction from his mother, he studied piano with Friedrich Wieck and entered the Royal Academy of Music in Vienna at the age of nine.
After graduating, Rothwell continued his piano training and studied composition. He became a répétiteur at the Vienna Court Opera, where impresario Pollini noticed him and invited him to Hamburg to assist Gustav Mahler. After two years with Mahler, Rothwell left Hamburg to conduct opera performances in European cities as director of the Amsterdam Royal Opera.
In 1904, Rothwell began an extended tour of the United States with a concert program that included Wagner’s works. The performances were successful, and he later made a similar tour conducting Puccini’s Madama Butterfly. He married Elizabeth Wolff, the soprano who sang the title role on the tour.
Rothwell returned to Europe hoping to conduct at the Frankfurt Opera, but, preferring symphonic conducting, he became head of the St. Paul Symphony Orchestra. He led it for seven years, until financial problems brought about its dissolution. He then moved to New York, where he taught and appeared as a guest conductor.
In the summer of 1919, Rothwell accepted an invitation from Los Angeles Philharmonic founder William Andrews Clark Jr. to become the orchestra’s first music director. He held the post until his death on March 13, 1927. He died of a heart attack during a trip to Santa Monica beach, where he liked to study scores, and was buried at Hollywood Forever Cemetery.