Background
Gade was born on 22 February in 1817 in Copenhagen. The son of a joiner and instrument maker.
composer conductor organist teacher violinist
Gade was born on 22 February in 1817 in Copenhagen. The son of a joiner and instrument maker.
Though Niels became proficient on the violin under Wexschall, and in the elements of the theory under Weyse and Berggreen, he was to a great extent self-taught.
Niels began his career as a violinist with the Royal Danish Orchestra and saw his concert overture Efterklange of Ossian ("Echoes of Ossian") premiered with them in 1841. When his first symphony was turned down for performance in Copenhagen, he sent it to Felix Mendelssohn. Mendelssohn received the work positively, and conducted it in Leipzig in March 1843, to enthusiastic public reaction. Supported by a fellowship from the Danish government, Gade himself moved to Leipzig, teaching at the Conservatory there, working as an assistant conductor of the Gewandhaus Orchestra, and befriending Mendelssohn, who had an important influence on his music. In 1845 he conducted the premiere performance of Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto in E minor. At Mendelssohn’s death in 1847, Gade was appointed to his position as chief conductor but was forced to return to Copenhagen in the spring of 1848 when war broke out between Prussia and Denmark.
In Copenhagen Gade became director of the Copenhagen Musical Society (a post he retained until his death) and, establishing a new orchestra and chorus, settled into a career as the most prominent musician in Denmark.
In 1852 Niels married to Emma Sophie Amalie Hartmann, daughter of J. P. E. Hartmann, in 1852. He remarried in 1857 after her death.