Introduction

Biography

Dressler came from a mu­sic­al fa­mi­ly, his fa­ther hav­ing been court flut­ist for the King of Sax­ony.

He mar­ried May Hyde of Nor­wich, Con­nec­ti­cut, and had three children, all mu­si­cians. His daugh­ter Ma­thil­de was a cell­ist, and his son Lou­is R. Dress­ler was or­gan­ist and mu­sic di­rect­or at the All Souls Uni­ta­ri­an Church.

He gra­du­at­ed from the Co­logne Con­ser­va­tory of Mu­sic in 1847, and short­ly there­af­ter played first vio­lin at the Op­e­ra House in Wies­ba­den, where he was lat­er con­duct­or.

He emi­grat­ed to Am­er­ica in the ear­ly 1850s as a so­lo pi­a­nist and ac­com­pan­ist to Ole Bull. Af­ter tra­vel­ing se­ver­al sea­sons with con­cert com­pa­nies, he set­tled in New York Ci­ty and taught and com­posed.

At one time, he was or­gan­ist and choir mas­ter at the Fourth Ave­nue Pres­by­te­ri­an Church in New York, as well as play­ing at St. Charles Bor­ro­me­o’s, St. Pe­ter’s Ro­man Ca­tho­lic Church in Brook­lyn, and St. Pe­ter’s in Jersey Ci­ty, New Jer­sey, where he stayed 18 years.

Dressler was for ma­ny years mu­sic­al ed­it­or for the pub­lish­ing house of Will­iam Hall & Son & J. L. Pe­ters.