Edwin Henry Lemare

Edwin Henry Lemare was an English organist and composer who lived the latter part of his life in the United States. He was one of the most highly regarded and highly paid organists of his generation, as well as the greatest performer and one of the most important composers of the late Romantic English-American Organ School.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article on Edwin Lemare.

From the period sources

Edwin Henry Lemare, a distinguished organist, was taught by his father before winning the Sir John Goss scholarship at age eleven, leading to six years of study at the Royal Academy of Music under figures like G. and W. Macfarren, Steggall, and Turpin (A Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, 1905). He quickly gained professional recognition, being elected a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists at eighteen and later an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music in 1893. Lemare held significant posts in London, including organist and choirmaster at Holy Trinity Church, Sloane Square, from 1892, and at St. Margaret’s, Westminster, from 1897. During these tenures, he became renowned as a solo player and recitalist, excelling in “the representation of orchestral works upon the organ,” with his playing of legitimate organ music noted as “remarkably artistic and intelligent” (Grove’s Dictionary, 1906). Indeed, Grove’s Dictionary (1906) considered him “the most brilliant of contemporary organists” after the death of W. T. Best. He also composed extensively for his instrument, including a symphony in G minor and numerous brilliant transcriptions. Lemare undertook an Australian tour in 1903 and his first American tour in 1901, later serving as organist at Carnegie Hall, Pittsburgh, from 1902 to 1905, before returning to London (A Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, 1905; Dictionary of Music, 1908). He would later become city organist in San Francisco from 1917, having given many recitals at the Panama Exposition in 1915 (Grove’s Dictionary: American Supplement, 1920).