Benjamin Carr (1768-1831) - The federal overture (1794)

Happy birthday Benjamin Carr! 📯🎁

Composer: Benjamin Carr (1768-1831)
Work: The federal overture (1794)
Performers: Sinfonia Finlandia Jyväskylä; Patrick Gallois (conductor)

Painting: Joseph Yeager (1792-1859) - Procession of Victuallers of Philadelphia (1821)
HD image: https://flic.kr/p/2rsKfAJ

Further info: https://www.discogs.com/sell/release/2818206
Listen free: https://open.spotify.com/album/5AsAvAUQqDp4NxeYQWogXX

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Benjamin Carr
(London, 12 September 1768 - Philadelphia, 24 May 1831).

English composer, publisher, and performer. Son of Joseph Carr (1739-1819), he studied the organ with Charles Wesley and composition with Samuel Arnold, and probably learnt engraving at his father's shop in London. After 1789 he assisted Arnold as harpsichordist and principal tenor for the Academy of Ancient Music, and his earliest known opera, 'Philander and Silvia', was performed at Sadler's Wells Theatre in October 1792. In 1793 he immigrated to the United States where he worked as a singer and musician at the Chestnut Street Theatre, making his debut the following year. He also established a business selling musical instruments and, eventually, as a publisher. He was choir director at the St. Augustine Episcopal Church in Philadelphia, as well as a founding member of the Musical Fund Society. As a composer, his works include six stage pieces (operas, ballets), around 50 songs (his setting of Scott's Hymn to the Virgin [1810] is generally considered the finest early American song), a Federal Overture (his most famous orchestral work), 12 keyboard sonatas (as well as other keyboard works). He also regularly published music in journals and magazines for the public, including Carr’s Musical Miscellany. His brother Thomas Carr (1780-1849) was also a composer and organist, mainly active in Philadelphia.