George Templeton Strong

1856–1948 (GENEVA)

George Templeton Strong was a Genevan composer who was born an American in New York in 1856. His father was a lawyer, an amateur organist, and President of the New York Philharmonic Society; his mother was an amateur singer and pianist. Strong moved to Leipzig in 1879 to study at the Conservatory. He also played the viola in the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. He went to see Franz Liszt in Weimar on several occasions, after having been introduced through friends of his mother.

Strong visited Switzerland several times before settling permanently in Genevain 1897. He remained there until his death in 1948. Strong was elected to the board of the Geneva Music Conservatory in 1918 and invested much of his own time in promoting young talent. Strong became a prominent figure in the music life of French-speaking Switzerland, and the Geneva Conservatory honoured him by organising a concert and reception for him on his birthday every five years from his 75^th through to his 90^th. Strong also became friends with the conductor Ernest Ansermet in Geneva. He loved the Swiss Alps and took up watercolour painting with enthusiasm and increasing professionalism.

Strong’s oeuvre as a composer is focused on symphonies, symphonic poems and chamber music. His later works reveal many references to the art of painting. Strong’s musical language is rooted in late Romanticism and remained largely untouched by the Modernist trends of the 20^th century.