Niels Wilhelm Gade

Niels W(ilhelm) Gade
(b Copenhagen, 22 Feb 1817; d Copenhagen, 21 Dec 1890). Danish composer, conductor, violinist, educationist and administrator.

For his wide-ranging musical activity Gade ranks as the most important figure in 19th-century Danish music.

He had musical parents, his father being a cabinet maker who about the time of Gade’s birth began to specialize in making musical instruments. Gade showed a pronounced musical talent at an early age, and plans for him to join his father’s business as an apprentice were quickly overtaken by his desire to become a musician. At 15 he began to study the violin with F.T. Wexschall and theory and composition with A.P. Berggreen, a leading figure in the Danish folk-ballad movement. He made his début as a violinist in May 1833, and in the following year he was engaged as a junior violinist in the Royal Orchestra.