James Hewitt

James Hewitt was an American conductor and composer of the late Classical period. He was very influential and played a key role in establishing the early American music community.

He was born in England in 1770, and his father was a captain in the British navy. Hewitt also entered the navy but resigned after a short time and transitioned to a career in music. Very little documentation exists regarding the details of his early life. A 1791 publication of a collection of songs and marches shows that he lived in Preston, a town near Liverpool, before moving to New York the following year. At the time of his arrival in the United States, he was already an accomplished musician, and claimed to have studied with <a href="spotify:artist:656RXuyw7CE0dtjdPgjJV6">Haydn</a> in London. While there is no existing evidence to support his time with <a href="spotify:artist:656RXuyw7CE0dtjdPgjJV6">Haydn</a>, the connection did help Hewitt find work right away as the conductor of the Park Street Theater Orchestra. In 1793, he conducted the American premiere of <a href="spotify:artist:656RXuyw7CE0dtjdPgjJV6">Haydn</a>'s Seven Last Words.

Two years later, Hewitt married Eliza King and they eventually had six children together who all became musicians. He arranged and composed several works around this time, including his popular piano sonata that he dedicated to George Washington, The Battle of Trenton. Hewitt's worklist is largely a reflection of what was commercially popular at the time. He composed lighter stage works such as Indian Chief, Tars from Tripoli, and program pieces like the Overture in Nine Parts, Expressive of a Battle. He was also an entrepreneur, and he acquired the New York branch of Carr's Musical Repository, where he sold musical instruments and sheet music. He used the space for private lessons as well, and he published hundreds of musical works including his own and those from other English composers.

In 1805, Hewitt began conducting in Boston at the Federal Street Theater, and he also played the organ at the Trinity Church. He left his position with the Park Street Theater Orchestra in 1808 and moved to Boston with his family in 1811. After five years of living and working in Boston, Hewitt and his two oldest sons moved back to New York. From 1820 to 1825, he traveled frequently between New York, Boston, and several cities around Georgia and the Carolinas. Around 1826, he received an unsuccessful surgery to have a (probably cancerous) growth removed from his throat, and he passed away a few months later in Boston. ~ RJ Lambert, Rovi