Sebastian Bach Mills

Sebastian Bach Mills (13 March 1839 – 21 December 1898) was an English pianist, composer and piano instructor who made his concert career in the United States and gave the first American performances of many important works. Biography Born in Cirencester, Gloucestershire, Mills received his earliest instruction from his father, who was organist at Gloucester Cathedral. The father was a great admirer of Johann Sebastian Bach, hence the name he gave his firstborn son. In adulthood, Mills simply signed himself “S.B. Mills.” In spite of the name and his father’s vocation, Mills chose piano over the organ. His precocious talent brought him to the attention of the French light music composer Louis-Antoine Jullien, who engaged the “infant prodigy” for his earliest concert performances. Young Mills played at Drury Lane Theatre in London in 1846 at the age of six, performing Czerny’s Rondo Brillant on Themes from Preciosa and gave a command performance before Queen Victoria at age seven. He studied in England with Cipriani Potter and William Sterndale Bennett and at the Leipzig Conservatory with Louis Plaidy, Carl Czerny, Ignaz Moscheles, Julius Rietz and Moritz Hauptmann. At Leipzig, he me