Background
George Lichtenstein was born in Hungary.
George Lichtenstein was born in Hungary.
As a child, he studied violin and piano with Georg Vierling, and was influenced by the music of Hungarian Gypsies. Lichtenstein also studied law and served as secretary to political activist Lajos Kossuth during the Hungarian Revolution of 1848.
He continued his studies at school in Pécs and Pressburg and later with Joseph Fischhof in Vienna. After the Russian intervention, he fled to Königsberg, and after the convention between Austria and Germany, from there to London in 1851. Lichtenstein, who later became editor of the Correspondence de Pesth newspaper.
In 1856 Lichtenstein settled in Edinburgh where he became noted as a music teacher and influence on musical culture of the city.
He was a founding member and president of the Edinburgh Society of Musicians and served as Director of the Edinburgh Philosophical Institution. He was director and head of the music department at Charlotte Square Institution.
Noted students include composer Helen Hopekirk. Lichtenstein remained unmarried and died at age seventy in Edinburgh.
He is buried in Morningside Cemetery, Edinburgh.
The grave is marked by a stout sandstone obelisk near the centre of the western boundary, facing away from the pathological