César Thomson was a Belgian

Belgium

Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...

 violin

Violin

The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....

ist, teacher and composer.

He was born in Liège in 1857. At age seven, he entered the Liège Conservatory of Music, and studied under Jacques Dupuis and Lambert Massart. By age 16, he was considered to have "a technique unrivalled by any other violinist then living". He was also a student of Hubert Léonard

Hubert Léonard

Hubert Léonard was a famous Belgian violinist, born at Bellaire, Liège. His earliest preparatory training was given by Rouma, after which he entered the Paris Conservatory in 1836, where he studied for three years under Habeneck. In 1844 he started his extended tours which established his...

, Henryk Wieniawski

Henryk Wieniawski

Henryk Wieniawski was a Polish violinist and composer.-Biography:Henryk Wieniawski was born in Lublin, Congress Poland, Russian Empire. His father, Tobiasz Pietruszka, had converted to Catholicism. His talent for playing the violin was recognized early, and in 1843 he entered the Paris...

 and Henri Vieuxtemps

Henri Vieuxtemps

Henri François Joseph Vieuxtemps was a Belgian composer and violinist. He occupies an important place in the history of the violin as a prominent exponent of the Franco-Belgian violin school during the mid-19th century....

.

In 1875 he travelled in Italy, and became a member of the private orchestra of Baron de Derwies. In 1877 he built the Castello di Trevano at Lugano

Lugano

Lugano is a city of inhabitants in the city proper and a total of over 145,000 people in the agglomeration/city region, in the south of Switzerland, in the Italian-speaking canton of Ticino, which borders Italy...

, Switzerland

Switzerland

Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

, and married a local noblewoman, Luisa Riva. In 1879 he played in a Berlin orchestra, and in 1882 was appointed violin professor at his alma mater

Alma mater

Alma mater , pronounced ), was used in ancient Rome as a title for various mother goddesses, especially Ceres or Cybele, and in Christianity for the Virgin Mary.-General term:...

, the Liège Conservatory. In 1897 he succeeded Eugène Ysaÿe

Eugène Ysaÿe

Eugène Ysaÿe was a Belgian violinist, composer and conductor born in Liège. He was regarded as "The King of the Violin", or, as Nathan Milstein put it, the "tzar"...

 as principal professor at the Brussels Conservatory. In 1898 he established a string quartet, with himself as first violin.

He had great success as a concert soloist at Leipzig

Leipzig

Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...

 in 1891 and Brussels in 1898. His appearances in Britain and the United States were less favourably received, but he was popular in South America. He taught at Ithaca College

Ithaca College

Ithaca College is a private college located on the South Hill of Ithaca, New York. The school was founded by William Egbert in 1892 as a conservatory of music. The college has a strong liberal arts core, but also offers several pre-professional programs and some graduate programs. The college is...

 in New York 1924-27 and at the Juilliard School

Juilliard School

The Juilliard School, located at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City, United States, is a performing arts conservatory which was established in 1905...

.

César Thomson revived many of the then obscure works of Niccolò Paganini

Niccolò Paganini

Niccolò Paganini was an Italian violinist, violist, guitarist, and composer. He was one of the most celebrated violin virtuosi of his time, and left his mark as one of the pillars of modern violin technique...

, and he did much work in editing, arranging and transcribing works from the early Italian school, by composers such as Corelli

Arcangelo Corelli

Arcangelo Corelli was an Italian violinist and composer of Baroque music.-Biography:Corelli was born at Fusignano, in the current-day province of Ravenna, although at the time it was in the province of Ferrara. Little is known about his early life...

, Handel

George Frideric Handel

George Frideric Handel was a German-British Baroque composer, famous for his operas, oratorios, anthems and organ concertos. Handel was born in 1685, in a family indifferent to music...

, Tartini

Giuseppe Tartini

Giuseppe Tartini was an Italian baroque composer and violinist.-Biography:Tartini was born in Piran, a town on the peninsula of Istria, in the Republic of Venice to Gianantonio – native of Florence – and Caterina Zangrando, a descendant of one of the oldest aristocratic Piranian families.It...

, J. S. Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...

, Nardini

Pietro Nardini

Pietro Nardini was an Italian composer and violinist.-Life:He was born in Fibiana and studied music at Livorno, later becoming a pupil of Giuseppe Tartini. Having been a student of Giuseppe Tartini, he moved to Germany where he joined the court chapel in Stuttgart where he became conductor in 1762...

 and Vitali

Giovanni Battista Vitali

Giovanni Battista Vitali was an Italian composer and violone player.Vitali was born in Bologna and spent all of his life in the Emilian region, moving to Modena in 1674...

. His own compositions included a Zigeuner Rhapsody for violin and orchestra (1909).

César Thomson died in Lugano in 1931.

His notable students included: Hugo Alfvén

Hugo Alfvén

was a Swedish composer, conductor, violinist, and painter.- Violinist :Alfvén was born in Stockholm and studied at the Music Conservatory there from 1887 to 1891 with the violin as his main instrument, receiving lessons from Lars Zetterquist. He also took private composition lessons from Johan...

, Aylmer Buesst

Aylmer Buesst

Aylmer Buesst was an Australian conductor, teacher and scholar, who spent his career in the United Kingdom. He was mainly associated with opera and vocal music...

, Edwin Grasse

Edwin Grasse

Edwin Grasse was an American violinist, organist and composer. Among his compositions were orchestral works, including a symphony and a violin concerto, and much chamber music, including a string quartet....

, Johan Halvorsen

Johan Halvorsen

Johan Halvorsen was a Norwegian composer, conductor and violinist.-Biography:Born in Drammen, Norway he was an accomplished violinist from a very early age and became a prominent figure in Norwegian musical life...

, Paul Kochanski

Paul Kochanski

Paul Kochanski was a Polish violinist, composer and arranger.- Training and early career :...

, Alma Moodie

Alma Moodie

Alma Templeton Moodie was an Australian violinist who established an excellent reputation in Germany in the 1920s and 1930s. She was regarded as the foremost female violinist during the inter-war years, and she premiered violin concertos by Kurt Atterberg, Hans Pfitzner and Ernst Krenek...

, Guillermo Uribe Holguín

Guillermo Uribe Holguín

Guillermo Uribe Holguín was a Colombian composer and violinist and one of the most important Colombian cultural figures of his generation...

, Tony Schultze, Haydn Wood

Haydn Wood

Haydn Wood was a 20th century English composer and a respected violinist.-Life:Haydn Wood was born in the Yorkshire town of Slaithwaite on 25 March 1882...

, and three members of the Flonzaley Quartet

Flonzaley Quartet

The Flonzaley Quartet was a string quartet organized in New York City in 1902, which was highly esteemed. The group disbanded in 1928.-Personnel:The original personnel of the group were as follows:1st violin: Adolfo Betti2nd violin: Alfred Pochon...

There is a Boulevarde César Thomson in Liège.