Early Life

Christopher Bach was born in Niederhone, Prussia and came to Milwaukee in 1855. Here he became a musical leader of Milwaukee's German element.

Musical Career and Success

Bach's band, organized in 1855, added gaiety to German gatherings for many years. Bach gave concerts in Schlitz Park, the West Side Turner Hall, and in public beer gardens. The Bach orchestra played in the Pabst Theater and the Milwaukee Music Hall, performing music in the German romantic tradition, and acquainting Midwesterners with Beethoven, Schubert, and Wagner.

Bach's fame spread and he conducted orchestras at expositions in St. Louis, Kansas City, and Chicago and in 1890 he took his orchestra, then over 70 pieces, to the New Orleans Exposition. He composed over a hundred marches, overtures and concertos, and three comic operas.

Legacy

In 1907 Hugo Bach succeeded his father and became director of the Bach orchestra and military band. A cellist and one-time member of the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra, he also directed both the first Park Board Band in 1912, and the El Wakodis Temple Band, which won international contests. Hugo Bach taught cello at the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music from 1911 to 1935, and was conductor of the WPA-sponsored Wisconsin Symphony Orchestra  in 1937.

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[Source: Dictionary of Wisconsin biography]