Peter Fassbänder

Peter Fassbänder (also spelled Faßbänder or Fassbaender; 28 January 1869 – 27 February 1920) was a German-Swiss composer, pianist, and music educator. He was born in Aachen and died in Zurich.

He graduated from the Cologne Conservatory in 1890, studying with Franz Wüllner, Gustav Jensen, and Isidor Seiss. Fassbänder spent four years in Saarbrücken, where he led the city orchestra and a choral society.

From 1895 to 1911 he served as municipal music director in Lucerne, directing the orchestra and the music school; one of his students was Fritz Brun. He then spent the remaining years of his life in Zurich as the head of a choral society.

Fassbänder performed in a piano trio with his son Ludwig Fassbaender (1894–1965), a cellist who also wrote several unpublished suites for viola da gamba, and his daughter Hedwig Fassbaender, a violinist. After Fassbänder’s death the trio continued to perform until 1932, with Hans Rohr (Hedwig’s husband from 1927) taking the piano part.

His output included four operas, eight symphonies and other orchestral works (including a Symphonic Fantasy from 1898), three piano concertos, two violin concertos, and one cello concerto. He also wrote three string quartets, sonatas for violin and piano and for solo violin, many songs, music for wind band, and choral works including a German Mass. In 1900 he won first prize at a competition of the German Choral Society in Brooklyn for one of his choral compositions.

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