August Wilhelmj

Who was August Wilhelmj?

August Emil Daniel Ferdinand Wilhelmj was a German violinist and teacher.

Wilhelmj was a child prodigy. When Henriette Sontag heard him in 1852, when he was seven, she said "You will be the German Paganini". In 1861, Franz Liszt heard him and sent him to Ferdinand David with a letter containing the words "Let me present you the future Paganini!".

He has become famous for his late nineteenth century arrangement of the second movement of J. S. Bach's Orchestral Suite No. 3 for violin and piano, known as Air on the G String.

From 1894 on he was a teacher for violin at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Among his pupils were the American violinist Nahan Franko, the multi-talented Canadian musician Donald Heins, and the Australian conductor Aylmer Buesst.