Background
Arthur Mees was born on February 13, 1850 in Columbus, Ohio, the second of three sons of a Lutheran minister, the Rev. Konrad Mees and Elise (Adam) Mees.
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orchestral conductor organist choral eacher
Arthur Mees was born on February 13, 1850 in Columbus, Ohio, the second of three sons of a Lutheran minister, the Rev. Konrad Mees and Elise (Adam) Mees.
The family showed an unusual literary tendency and the sons were educated both in America and in Europe and were chosen for high places in the field of education. The eldest, Theophilus Martin Konrad, an ordained Lutheran minister, was a professor of Latin, Hebrew, and of mental and moral philosophy in Capital University, Columbus, Ohio; the youngest, Carl Leo, became president of Ohio University at Athens, Ohio. Little is known of Arthur's early training in music except that he began playing the organ in his father's church when very young and that when he later took up instrumental study, he also tried to write anthems. In 1870 he was graduated from Concordia College, Fort Wayne, Indiana, with the degree of A. B.
Mees had evidently decided early to make music his life work, for after his graduation he accepted a position in Wesleyan Female College, Cincinnati, Ohio, as a teacher of piano and theory. He was also organist of various Cincinnati churches and conductor of singing societies. In 1873 his work as choral accompanist attracted the attention of Theodore Thomas, who appointed him accompanist of the first Cincinnati May Festival. During the same year he went to Berlin, and upon the advice of Rubinstein, he studied piano with Theodore Kullak, theory with Carl Friedrich Weitzmann, and score-reading with Heinrich Dorn. He remained in Europe for several years, the last of which he spent at the Leipzig Conservatory. In 1880 Mees returned to Cincinnati as a teacher of harmony and composition at the College of Music, continuing as organist of the May Festivals and trainer of the chorus. In 1886 Thomas called him to New York to become assistant conductor of the chorus of the National Opera Company. This company was short-lived, and when it disbanded, Mees became director of the Orpheus Society of New York, the Albany Festival Chorus, and of the Orange (New Jersey) Mendelssohn Union and numerous smaller organizations. From 1896 to 1898 he was in Chicago as assistant conductor of the Theodore Thomas Orchestra and conductor of an auxiliary choral organization, and from 1898 to 1904 he was a conductor of the New York Mendelssohn Glee Club. In 1913 he conducted the Bridgeport (Connecticut) Oratorio Society and in 1918 the Worcester (Massachusetts) festivals and the Cecilia Society of Boston. From 1900 to 1916 he was an assistant conductor to Richmond Peck Paine in the Norfolk (Connecticut) festivals, succeeding the latter as the conductor in 1916. He became an experienced and gifted director of choral and orchestral organizations but notwithstanding his strenuous work as a conductor he found time to write Daily Studies for the Piano (1877) and Choirs and Choral Music (1901), the latter a valuable work. He also edited the program books of the New York Philharmonic Society, 1877-96, and of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, 1896-98. He died at his home in New York City after a long illness.
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Mees was married on January 28, 1897, to Susan Marguerite Howell of Alfred, New York, but they had no children.