George Patrick Henry Loder was born in
Bath, Somerset in 1816, son of George Loder, a flautist, and wife Mary Cook, who had married at St James,
Bath, Somerset, on 18 December 1815. Loder was baptized in the Chapel of St Mary,
Walcot, Bath, on 14 November 1816. His sister was the pianist and composer
Kate Loder, and his uncle, the violinist
John David Loder, was father of the composer
Edward Loder. His mother, Mary, died in 1821. His father remarried two years later to Frances Kirkham. In 1836 he visited America, living for some years in
Baltimore, and in 1844 he was principal of the New York Vocal Institute, and member of the
Philharmonic and Vocal Societies, which he had helped to establish there. He played the double-bass in the Philharmonic Society for five seasons, and sometimes conducted the orchestra. He conducted a performance of his overture
Marmion at a concert of the Philharmonic Society at the Apollo, which was reviewed: "The composition is one of more than ordinary excellence, and if it is not distinguished by originality of ideas, it certainly deserves the highest encomiums for the excellence of its instrumentation." About 1856 Loder went to
Adelaide, South Australia, with the soprano
Anna Bishop, and remained in Australia as conductor of
William Saurin Lyster's opera troupe. In 1859 he was again practising his profession, as organist, vocalist, conductor, and composer, in London. On 11 June of that year he conducted a revival of Edward Loder's opera
Raymond and Agnes. In 1861 he published
The Pets of the Parterre, a comic operetta, which had been produced at the
Lyceum Theatre, and in 1862
The Old House at Home, a musical entertainment. Loder paid a second visit to Australia, and died after a long illness in Adelaide on 15 July 1868. ==Compositions==