A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Leffler, Adam

1584615A Dictionary of Music and Musicians — Leffler, Adam


LEFFLER, Adam, born in 1808, son of James Henry Leffler, bassoon player and organist of St. Katherine's Hospital by the Tower, the German Lutheran Church in the Savoy, and Streatham Chapel, who died suddenly in the street in 1819—was soon after his father's death admitted a chorister of Westminster Abbey. On attaining manhood he was endowed with a bass voice of exceptionally fine quality and extensive compass, from E below the stave to G above it,—and a natural gift for singing. He first attracted notice in October 1829 at a Festival at Exeter, when the casual absence of another performer gave him the opportunity of appearing as a principal singer. He acquitted himself so satisfactorily that he was immediately appointed a deputy at Westminster Abbey, and shortly afterwards took and maintained a good position on the English operatic stage and in the concert room. But for a constitutional carelessness and neglect of close study he might, with his natural and acquired qualifications, have occupied the highest place in his profession. He died of apoplexy, March 28, 1857.