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223 10 Mark Kaiser Violinist, Teacher, and Proud Citizen T he finest violinist to have been born in New Orleans and to have lived there most of his life was Mark Kaiser. A child prodigy in New Orleans , he perfected his technique and style in Paris and began his career at age eighteen back in America. After a decade of dazzling audiences from Dubuque and Saint Louis to Boston and New York and of residing as a concertizing violinist in Baltimore and Chicago, he returned to New Orleans late in 1882 where he performed, taught, and conducted for the remainder of his life. He was one of the most highly respected musicians in the city not only for his artistry but for his humanity. Kaiser was born on February 22, 1855, at his family residence at 80 Chartres Street. His father, Samuel Kaiser (ca. 1823–85), a native of Prussia, was a partner in L. & S. Kaiser, wholesale dealers in German, French, and English goods, which opened around 1851. By 1857 the brothers Samuel and Louis Kaiser each had his own store at 69 Chartres and 48 Chartres respectively. Mark’s mother was Maria Kaiser (ca. 1823–1909). When he was a child, Mark heard the violinist Jacques Oliveira, who thrilled audiences in the city during the Civil War, and this virtuoso inspired him to study the instrument. His teacher in New Orleans was Michael Hoeffner, a Viennese native and a professor of music in the Crescent City from at least 1843 to 1889. Kaiser progressed rapidly, and while still a small child he made his local debut in a recital at the “Red Church” in Saint Charles Parish. When he was twelve, on December 19, 1867, he was the featured soloist in a grand concert “for the benefit of the young and accomplished violinist Mark Kaiser, eleven years of age [sic], . . . when he will be kindly assisted by the first musical talent of the city, and the orchestra and artists of the National Theatre.” He played demanding works: Viotti’s Grand Concerto No. 5 with full orchestra, an arrangement for violin and piano of airs from Donizetti’s The Daughter of the Regiment, 224 | Concert Life in Nineteenth-Century New Orleans and Paganini’s Le Carnival de Venise.1 The purpose of the concert was “to defray the expenses of a trip to Europe, where [Kaiser] hopes to perfect himself in his art.”2 The writer for a local newspaper was already well aware of the boy’s talents when he wrote, “All lovers of music, for Mark wields the bow of a master already, and all those who would encourage true worth and genius, should go to the National this evening to hear him play. The theatre has kindly been placed at his disposal, and the whole orchestra have volunteered their services for the occasion. . . . We can promise all a rich musical treat, for we have listened to the sweet notes of this youthful prodigy’s violin.” That so many professional musicians would volunteer their time for a child demonstrates the high regard in which the discerning musicians of the city held Kaiser. Two days later the reviewer ran ecstatic: Young Mark Kaiser, the youthful musical prodigy, made his debut before a crowded and brilliant audience last evening, at the National Theatre, the use of which was kindly tendered for the purpose by the management. Mark may consider himself especially favored by the very flattering ovation which was given him, for it is rare that genius, however great, meets with such proofs of appreciation, without having previously received the approbation of the general public. He may be said to have won renown by a single effort. We have no desire to give the young aspirant more credit than we think he justly deserves, but if he have not the soul of a musician, and if he do not prove himself hereafter worthy of the praise we have accorded him, then we shall never trust our judgment more. There was a perceptible tremulousness in the boy’s manner when he stood, for the first time, before the garish foot lights, the sight of the large audience, the loud murmer [sic] of expectancy which sounded in his ears, was calculated to abash an older person, but he soon forgot the presence of every one, and seemed to be perfectly wrapped up in the music—the aria from “La Fille du Régiment”—which his bow drew from the violin with...

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