is devoted to his family. As a violinist
he may be considered to rank next to Joachim.

Carl Halir, who visited America in 1896, was born in 1859 at Hohenelbe
in Bohemia, and was first taught by his father. He entered the
conservatory at Prague at the age of eight, and remained there until he
was fourteen, studying under Bennewitz, after which he went to Berlin
and became a pupil of Joachim.

For some time he was a member of the Bilse orchestra, and then went to
Koenigsberg as concert-master, after which he held a similar position for
three years at Mannheim, and then at Weimar, where he married the
well-known singer, Theresa Zerbst.

On his first appearance, at the Bach festival at Eisenath, he played
with Joachim the Bach double concerto, and was very successful. He has
made concert tours throughout the greater part of Europe, and while in
America he was recognised as a broad artist. He is no virtuoso in the
ordinary sense of the word, but a classical, non-sensational,
well-educated musician, whose playing was not dazzling or magnetic, but
delighted by its intellectuality. He has an even and sympathetic tone,
and inspires the greatest respect as an artist and as a man, and, while
other players may make greater popular successes, Halir stands on a high
artistic plane which few can reach.

Franz Ondricek, who visited the United States also in 1896, was born at
Prague in 1859, the same year as Halir, but is an artist of an entirely
different stamp. In his early youth he was a member of a dance music
band, and his father taught him to play the violin. It was not until he
was fourteen years of age that he was able to enter the conservatory of
his native town. Three years later he was sent, through the generosity
of a wealthy merchant, to Paris, where he became a pupil of Massart. He
shared with Achille Rivarde the honour of the first prize at the
Conservatoire, since which time he has been a wandering star, and has
never sought any permanent engagement. His playing is marked by
individuality and dash, but he does not show to the best advantage in
the interpretation of the classics.

Charles Martin Loeffler, who shares the first desk of the first violins
in the Boston Symphony Orchestra with Mr. Kneisel, is a musician of the
highest ability.

He was born in Muhlhausen, Alsace, in 1861. He enjoyed the advantages of
instruction under Joachim, in Berlin, after which he continued his
studies in Paris, with Massart and L