Aloysius Minkus

Born to parents of Jewish heritage who converted to Catholicism shortly before his birth, Aloysius Ludwig Minkus was brought up in the affluent Innere Stadt section of Vienna. A child prodigy on the violin, Minkus gave his first recital at the age of eight. Upon immigrating to Russia and settling in St. Petersburg in 1853, Minkus became well positioned within the music institutions of Imperial Russia, most notably the Bolshoi Theater and the Moscow Conservatory. He eventually became the official composer of ballet music for St. Petersburg imperial theaters, a post he held until 1886, when he retired. Thereafter, Minkus and his wife, Maria Antoinette (née Schwarz), returned to Vienna, where Minkus continued to compose until the turn of the century. He died destitute of pneumonia, and his grave was eventually destroyed by the Nazis.