Max Weil

Max Weil (November 21, 1869 — February 18, 1944) was an American violinist, conductor, composer, and music educator. He is chiefly remembered for his contributions to music in the city of Halifax, Nova Scotia in Canada.^[1]

Born and raised in Philadelphia, Weil was educated as a violinist in Germany over a four year period at the Leipzig Conservatory in the late 1880s. After graduating from that institution in 1890, he began his career as a concert violinist and chamber musician in his native city before working as a violinist in the New York Symphony Orchestra in 1891-1892. In the 1892-1893 season he spent 26 weeks performing as the second violinist in George Lehmann's Schumann Quartette; mainly in concerts in Denver, Colorado. He returned briefly to Philadelphia in 1893 before joining the violin faculty of the Halifax Conservatory of Music and the staff of the associated Halifax Ladies' College in September 1893. He served as the head of the violin faculty at that school until his resignation in 1900 when he founded the Weil School of Music in Halifax; a school he operated until 1908.

Weil was a prominent and important conductor in Halifax from 1893-1908. He was appointed music director of the Haydn Quintette Club in 1893, a post he held for many years. In 1897 he founded the Halifax Symphony Orchestra, a professional orchestra he conducted for eleven seasons of concerts. He was also active as a conductor and producer of operas in Halifax.

In 1908 Weil left Canada to become first chair of the second violin section of the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra. During that time he also was the second violinist in the Sansone Quartet, a string quartet based in Saint Paul, Minnesota that was founded by the Naples born composer and violinst Errico Sansone [ca] (b. 1859). He returned to Canada in late 1912 when he was appointed conductor of the Calgary Symphony Orchestra, a post he held until shortly after the outbreak of World War I. He then relocated to Los Angeles where he had a career in real estate. He died in that city in 1944 at the age of 74.