Samuel de Lange Junior. was a Dutch composer, music conservatory director, organist, pianist, conductor and music teacher.
Background
His father, Samuel de Lange Senior, and his one year younger brother Daniël de Lange were also well known musicians. De Lange was born in Rotterdam, the son of Johanna Molijn and Samuel de Lange Senior, a music teacher and organist in Rotterdam. In the year of Samuel Junior."s birth, his father established a piano company with January and George Rijken, "Rijken & de Lange", a company that still operates in Rotterdam.
Education
Among other teachers, Samuel Junior. studied organ with Alexander Winterberger, a pupil of Liszt, and piano with Karol Mikuli, a pupil of Chopin.
Career
He took music composition lessons with Johannes Verhulst and Berthold Damcke. He spent his unusually productive life in many cities and countries. From the age of 20 to 23 (1860-1863) he taught piano at the music conservatory of Lemberg (now Lvov, Ukraine).
After that he returned to Rotterdam, but he soon went abroad again.
He lived and worked subsequently in Basel, Paris, Cologne and The Hague to finally settle in Stuttgart, where he became director of the music conservatory. De Lange befriended many fellow composers, including Johannes Brahms, Max Bruch and Max Reger, and dedicated compositions to Friedrich Grützmacher (1st cello concerto), Hugo Becker (2nd cello sonata), Charles-Marie Widor and Johannes Brahms.
De Lange introduced reforms in the education of music in Cologne, Basel, and Stuttgart and was, with his father, instrumental in the founding of De Nederlandse Bachvereniging. In 1871, he played the first performance in the Netherlands of Brahms" 1st piano concerto.
Samuel de Lange Junior. died in his residence town of Stuttgart at the age of 70.