Background
Zerrahn was born on July 28, 1826 in Malchow, Germany.
Zerrahn was born on July 28, 1826 in Malchow, Germany.
Little is known of his childhood, but it is said that Zerrahn had his first music lessons at the age of twelve from Friedrich Weber in Rostock. Later he studied in Hanover and in Berlin.
Political events in Central Europe in 1848 forced Zerrahn, like hundreds of other musicians, to emigrate to America. He accordingly joined the ranks of the Germania Society, a little orchestra whose members were largely recruited from Gungl's orchestra in Berlin. Zerrahn was the flute player of the Germanians, and he was with the group from the time of its first concert in New York, October 5, 1848. After it disbanded in September 1854, he settled in Boston, where he was elected conductor of the Handel and Haydn Society in 1854, a post he held for forty-two years. He was also active as conductor of a number of other organizations. From 1855 to 1863 he conducted one of the several orchestras in Boston known by the name of "Philharmonic. " From 1865 to 1882 he directed the concerts of the Harvard Musical Association, and from 1866 to 1897 he was conductor of the Worcester (Massachussets) festivals. Until his retirement in 1898 he was a teacher of singing, harmony, and composition at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. Because of his association with practically all the important musical events that occurred in Boston and New England during his residence there, Zerrahn was extremely influential, particularly in the development of choral singing. In 1869, and again in 1872, Zerrahn was prominently identified with the "Peace Jubilees" organized and carried out by Patrick S. Gilmore, the bandmaster. Zerrahn was chorus director for both of these festivals. At the first "jubilee" in Boston, he had under his direction a chorus of ten thousand voices. It was an epochmaking affair, and aside from such feats of showmanship as the introduction of real anvils hammered by real fireman for the "Anvil Chorus, " and the booming of cannon to mark the rhythm of national airs, genuine artistic achievements were reached in the orchestral and choral numbers presented. Three years later (1872) at Gilmore's second "jubilee, " the size of the chorus was doubled, but the results were not so happy as at the first concerts; it was impossible for even so experienced a conductor as Zerrahn to keep such a vast body of singers together. Zerrahn lived for over ten years after his retirement, and died in Milton, Massachussets, at the home of one of his two sons.
