Ramsey County History – Fall 1973: “Schubert Club History Reflects Romance of Music in St. Paul”

Schubert Club History Reflects Romance of Music in St. Paul
Author: Bruce Carlson

The early years of concert-style music in the city. Singing societies, mostly German, began in the early 1850s. Prof. Philip Rohr introduced opera in the late 1850s, and the Signor Lotti Grand German Opera Company took it up again after the Civil War.
Beginning in the 1870s, the railroads made it easy for traveling companies to come to St. Paul. Gilbert and Sullivan’s H.M.S. Pinafore made its St. Paul debut in 1879. The Boston Ideals opera company made the city a regular stop in the 1880s and ‘90s.
Orchestral music appeared in 1858 with a locally organized string quartet. The quartet grew into the St. Paul Musical Society, led for many years by George Siebert.
It was “the major orchestra in the state during the last half of the 19th century . . . .”
Recital music in the city also dates to the mid-1850s, and interest in this form led to the creation of the Schubert Club, which was formally organized in 1882 as the Ladies Musicale. It put on local events and hosted touring artists, including Josef Hoffman and Jan Kubelik. The club also produced Minnesota’s first renowned conductor, Emil Oberhoffer. Stranded in the city in the early 1890s, he was befriended by and then employed by the Schubert Club. He went on to become the first conductor of the Minneapolis Symphony.
PDF of Carlson article