Kneisel, Franz

Kneisel, Franz

(1865–1926) violinist, teacher; born in Bucharest, Rumania. He graduated at age 14 from the Bucharest Conservatory and studied and played in Austria and Germany until he emigrated to the U.S.A. in 1885, to become concertmaster of the Boston Symphony. The next year he organized the Kneisel Quartet, which achieved worldwide fame. He left the orchestra in 1903 and dissolved the quartet in 1917; from 1905 he taught at New York's Institute of Musical Art.