Ludwig Minkus

Ludwig Minkus (1826-1891) was born in Vienna. He turned out to be a musical prodigy, making his debut at age eight during a Viennese recital with a ‘brilliant performance on violin’. In 1852, he was appointed first violinist at the Vienna Court Opera, but a year later emigrated to Russia, where he became conductor at Prince Yusupov's court in St Petersburg. This appointment was followed by Minkus' appointment as conductor at the Imperial Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow. He made a rapid career there and also met choreographers Arthur Saint-Léon and Marius Petipa.

Minkus developed into a much sought-after ballet composer and also arranged a large number of works by other composers. He wrote more compositions and arrangements for ballet than Tchaikovsky and Prokofiev combined, was the official ballet composer of the Imperial Theatres in St Petersburg for 20 years, and worked for a long time with Marius Petipa. His best-known works are Don Quixote (1869), La Source (1866) and La Bayadère (1877).