Otto Sutro (1833 – January 19, 1896) was a German-born American organist, conductor, minor composer,

publisher Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed works, such as books, newsp ...

and music store owner, and a leading figure in the musical life of

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

Biography

Sutro was born to a

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

family in

Aachen Aachen ( ; ; Aachen dialect: ''Oche'' ; French and traditional English: Aix-la-Chapelle; or ''Aquisgranum''; nl, Aken ; Polish: Akwizgran) is, with around 249,000 inhabitants, the 13th-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia, and the 28th- ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. He has six brothers and three sisters. His brother

Adolph Sutro Adolph Heinrich Joseph Sutro (April 29, 1830 – August 8, 1898) was a German-American engineer, politician and philanthropist who served as the 24th mayor of San Francisco from 1895 until 1897. Born a German Jew, he moved to Virginia Cit ...

became the first

Mayor of

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

and built the

Sutro Baths The Sutro Baths was a large, privately owned public saltwater swimming pool complex in the Lands End area of the Outer Richmond District in western San Francisco, California. Built in 1894, the Sutro Baths was located north of Ocean Beach, ...

. His brother Theodore Sutro, husband of Florence Sutro, was seminal in the building and financing the

Sutro Tunnel The Sutro Tunnel is a drainage tunnel (adit) connected to the Comstock Lode in Northern Nevada. It begins at Dayton, Nevada and connects Northwest to the Savage mine in Virginia City, Nevada. The tunnel was proposed by Adolph Sutro, a Prussian J ...

first proposed by his brother Adolph. He studied the organ with Nicolas Lemmens in

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

and moved to the United States in 1851, undertaking further studies at the

Peabody Institute The Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University is a private conservatory and preparatory school in Baltimore, Maryland. It was founded in 1857 and opened in 1866 by merchant/financier and philanthropist George Peabody (1795–1869) ...

. He hosted a musical appreciation society known as the Wednesday Club. With fellow alum

Fritz Finke Fritz Finke was a choral conductor, composer and arranger in the United States and Germany. Along with fellow composers Joseph Pache, Asger Hamerik, Richard Burmeister and Otto Sutro, Finke was a leading figure in the musical culture of late-180 ...

, Sutro helped found the Oratorio Society of Baltimore, and became its main conductor.

Personal life

He married Arianna Handy, a pianist, singer, and daughter of a former chief justice of Mississippi,

Alexander Hamilton Handy Alexander Hamilton Handy (December 25, 1809 – September 12, 1883) was a Mississippi attorney who served on the Mississippi Supreme Court from 1853 to 1867, sitting as Chief Justice of Mississippi from 1864 to 1867. Leslie SouthwickMississippi Su ...

. They had two daughters,

Rose and Ottilie Sutro Rose Sutro (15 September 187011 January 1957) and Ottilie Sutro (4 January 187212 September 1970) were American sisters who were notable as one of the first recognised duo-piano teams. It has been claimed they were the first such team, but Willi ...

, who were the first recognised piano-duo team. Sutro sat for portrait artist

David Dalhoff Neal David Dalhoff Neal (October 20, 1838May 2, 1915), was an American artist. Early years David Dalhoff Neal was born to father Stephen Bryant Neal and mother Mary (Dalhoff) Neal, on Middlesex Street, in Lowell, Massachusetts. His grandparents were ...

in 1889 (see image). Rapheal Tuck & Son created a litho art card Character Otto Sutro.

References

1896 deaths American male composers American conductors (music) American male conductors (music) American organists American male organists German composers German conductors (music) German male conductors (music) German organists German-American culture in Maryland Jewish American composers People from Aachen Musicians from Baltimore German emigrants to the United States 19th-century German Jews 1833 births 19th-century conductors (music) 19th-century American composers 19th-century German musicians Sutro family 19th-century American businesspeople {{US-composer-stub