Franz Krommer

• Name — Franz Krommer • Birth Name — František Vincenc Kramář • Born — 27 November 1759 • Birthplace — Kamenice u Jihlavy, Moravia • Died — 8 January 1831 • Place of death — Vienna, Austrian Empire • Occupation — Composer

Franz Krommer was born František Vincenc Kramář in Kamenice. His parents went by a Germanized version of their surname, Krommer. His father was an innkeeper in Kamenice until the family moved to Třebíč in 1773. From 1773 to 1776, Franz studied violin and organ with his uncle, Antonín Mattias Kramář (1742–1804), in Brno-Tuřany. He became an organist here along with his uncle in 1777. In 1785 he moved to Vienna and later to Simontornya in Hungary, where he was a violinist and later a Kapellmeister for the orchestra of the Count of Limburg Stirum. In 1790, Krommer was named choirmaster at the Pécs Cathedral in Hungary. In 1793 he became a Kapellmeister to Count Anton II Grassalkovich. He returned to Vienna in 1795, becoming maestro di cappella for Duke Ignaz Fuchs in 1798. In 1818 Krommer succeeded Leopold Koželuch as Kapellmeister, composer for the imperial court of Austria for Francis I, the first Emperor of Austria, the post he held until his death. According to Carl Engel he may have been Kapellmeister as early as 1814. He died on 8 January 1831 in Vienna at the age of 71.