George Templeton Strong (composer)

George Templeton Strong was born in New York City to Ellen (Ruggles) and George Templeton Strong, an attorney. The family was musical; both parents were amateur musicians and his father, an amateur organist, was on the board of the New York Philharmonic Society. He occasionally played as an oboist and English horn player with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. While the senior Strong hoped his son would follow him in the law, they became reconciled before the father's death. ==Career==

In 1879 Strong traveled to the Leipzig Conservatory in Germany, where he became a pupil of Salomon Jadassohn and Richard Hofmann together with many European musicians who became prominent in the next decades. He composed his third symphonic poem, Undine, Op. 14 in 1883. In 1886 Strong moved to Wiesbaden, where he became close friends with American composer Edward MacDowell. There he composed The Haunted Mill and completed his Symphony No.2 in G minor in 1888. After his 1891 return to the United States, Strong taught counterpoint and composition at the New England Conservatory in Boston. He disliked the work, and his health suffered. In 1897 he moved back to Europe to Vevey, Switzerland, on Lake Geneva. For the next several years he studied watercolor painting seriously and worked as professional artist. About 1912, he moved to Geneva, where he began to compose music again. He lived in Geneva for the rest of his life and painted seriously for 30 years. ==Private life==

Strong married three times. He first wed Frances Gertrude Veronica Anderson (a cousin of the theatrical costume designer and painter, Percy Anderson) in June 1883 at Samer, France, then Elizabeth Jane Myers in 1894 at Brentford, UK and finally around 1946, Lẻonie Clara Ehrat. In 1948 Strong died aged 92 in Geneva, where he had lived for more than 30 years. ==References==