Antonio Casimir Cartellieri

Antonio Casimir Cartellieri (27 September 1772 – 2 September 1807) was a Bohemian composer, violinist, conductor, and voice teacher. His son was the spa physician Paul Cartellieri.

Cartellieri was born in Gdańsk. His father, Antonio Maria Gaetano Cartellieri, was Italian, and his mother, Elisabeth Böhm, was Latvian. Both of his parents were opera singers and he received his earliest musical education from them. At the age of 13 his parents divorced, at which time Cartellieri moved with his mother to Berlin. In that city he began studying music composition.

In 1791, at the age of 18, Cartellieri became court composer and music director for Count Oborsky in Poland. The following year he returned to Berlin with his employer where his first opera premiered successfully. He then went with the Count to Vienna where he continued with further musical studies in music theory and composition under Johann Georg Albrechtsberger, Antonio Salieri, Ignaz von Seyfried, and possibly Ludwig van Beethoven.

In 1795 Cartellieri gave his first performance with Beethoven at a public concert sponsored by Oborsky which featured the première of his own oratorio Gioas re di Giuda and Beethoven’s first performance as a concert pianist in Vienna. Prince Joseph Franz Maximilian Lobkowicz was in attendance at the concert, and was so impressed by Cartellieri that he engaged him as the Kapellmeister, singing teacher, and violinist in 1796, roles he held until his death 11 years later. His other duties at court included directing operas and playing the violin in both concerts of chamber music and symphonic music. He notably performed in the world premières of several works by Beethoven under the composer's baton, including the Eroica Symphony and the Triple Concerto on 23 January 1805. He died in Liebshausen, Bohemia at the age of 34.