Introduction

Biography

Otto was the son of sales­man Mor­itz Da­vid Gold­schmidt and wo­men’s rights ac­ti­vist Jo­han­na Golds­chmidt, and hus­band of sing­er Jen­ny Lind, the Swed­ish Night­ing­ale (mar­ried 1852).

He stu­died un­der Men­dels­sohn and Haup­tmann at the Con­ser­va­to­ry in Leipzig, Ger­ma­ny. He was a com­pos­er, con­duct­or and pi­an­ist, known for his pi­ano con­cer­tos and oth­er pi­ano piec­es.

In 1852, Gold­schmidt con­vert­ed to Epis­co­pa­lian­ism. By 1858, he and his wife were liv­ing in Lon­don. In 1863 Ot­to be­came a pro­fes­sor and lat­er vo­cal di­rect­or at the Roy­al Aca­de­my of Mu­sic.

In 1876, he found­ed the Bach Choir, which he led un­til 1886. He sev­er­al times con­duct­ed the Low­er Rhine fes­ti­vals in Düs­sel­dorf, Ger­ma­ny.

Works

• Chorale Book for Eng­land, with Will­iam Stern­dale Ben­nett, 1863
• Jenny Lind. Ihre Lauf­bahn als Künst­ler­in, 1883 (his wife’s bio­gra­phy)