Alois Taux

Alois Taux (5 October 1817 – 17 April 1861) was a German conductor and composer. He was important in the musical life of Salzburg, and initiated music festivals there dedicated to Mozart. Life Taux was born in Baumgarten, in Silesia (now Braszowice in Poland); he showed musical talent at an early age, and during school years he learned to play violin and organ, and composed church pieces. He took lessons in piano and organ from the organist at the abbey of Camenz (now Kamieniec Ząbkowicki). He was admitted to Prague Conservatory in 1834, where he studied with Bedřich Diviš Weber and the horn player Johann Nepomuk Janatka. In 1837 he joined the theatre orchestra in Graz, playing second violin and later horn. In 1839 he went to Linz, where he was assistant director of the theatre orchestra. He founded in 1847 the Salzburger Liedertafel, a men’s choir, of which he was musical director to 1850 and from 1858 until his death. He became in 1858 choirmaster of the Salzburg Singakademie. Invited to conduct at various venues, he travelled to Germany, Belgium, England and France; an autograph collection, preserved by the Salzburger Liedertafel, shows that he met cultural figures including Hec