Friedrich Valentin Hermann, accomplished German violin virtuoso, composer and teacher, b. 1828 in Frankfurt am Main. He studied music first with Bernhardt Mohr and from 1843 at the Leipzig Conservatorium with Ferdinand David, Mendelssohn and Hauptmann. Immediately after finishing his education, he was hired as first violist of the Leipzig Gewandhaus and Theatre Orchestra. He still holds that position today, as well as that of a teacher at the Conservatorium, with great success. Hermann is known as an able and deft composer thanks to the successful performance in 1852 of a Symphony at the Gewandhaus. Among his published works are Cappriccios for three violins, Études for violin, a Duo for violin and violoncello, a String Quartet, piano arrangements of Viotti’s and Kreutzer’s Violin Concertos, as well as arrangements of the Symphonies of Beethoven, Mendelssohn and Schumann. Hermann is one of the finest violists and string quartet players alive; his contributions to the musical life of Leipzig are invaluable.
—Source: Musikalisches Conversations-Lexikon: An Encyclopedia of All Musical Sciences for the Educated of All Classes, edited and published by Hermann Mendel, Berlin 1875 (transl.)
