Julius Stern

Julius Stern (8 August 1820 – 27 February 1883) was a Jewish-German musical pedagogue and composer.

Stern was born at Breslau. He received his elementary education in music from the violinist Peter Lüstner, and at the age of nine played at concerts. In 1832 his parents removed to Berlin, where Stern studied first under Ludwig Wilhelm Maurer, Moritz Ganz, and Saint-Lubin (), and later under Rungenhagen at the Königliche Akademie der Künste. As a result of several compositions which he had written while a pupil of the academy, King Frederick William IV of Prussia, who was an ardent lover of art, granted Stern a stipend which enabled him to pursue his studies. He went to Dresden, where he received instruction from Miksch (); and thence to Paris, where he subsequently was appointed leader of the Deutscher Gesangverein Society. While in the latter city he conducted, among other works, the indidental music by Mendelssohn to Sophocles' Antigone.

In 1846 Stern returned to Berlin, where, in the following year, he founded the Stern Gesangverein. The first performance of Mendelssohn's oratorio Elijah (October 1847) established Stern's reputation as one of the foremost conductors of his day, and his choir constantly increased in size and efficiency, so that the repertoire of the society soon embraced not only the standard works of Handel, Haydn, and Bach, but also those of contemporary composers. In 1872 the Gesangverein celebrated its twenty-fifth anniversary amid great enthusiasm; two years later Stern was compelled to resign his directorship on account of ill health.

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