{{Short description|French composer, pianist and teacher}} {{Infobox classical composer |name = Georges Mathias |image = Georges Mathias par Marie-Alexandre Alophe.jpg |image_size = |alt = |caption = Georges Mathias |birth_date = {{birth date|1826|10|14|df=y}} |birth_place = Paris, France |death_date = {{death date and age|1910|10|14|1826|10|14|df=y}} |death_place = Paris, France |occupation = Composer |alma_mater = }} '''Georges Amédée Saint-Clair Mathias''' ({{IPA|fr|matjas|lang}}; 14 October 1826{{spaced ndash}}14 October 1910) was a French composer, pianist and teacher. Alongside his teaching work, Georges Mathias was a very active concert pianist.
==Biography== thumb|right|Grave of Mathias. Mathias was born in Paris. He studied at the Conservatoire de Paris with François Bazin, Auguste Barbereau, Augustin Savard and Fromental Halévy. Privately, he studied composition with Friedrich Kalkbrenner and piano with Frédéric Chopin.<ref>{{cite book |title=Intimate Music: A History of the Idea of Chamber Music |last=Baron |first=John H. |year=1998 |publisher=Pendragon Press |isbn=1-57647-100-4 |page=330 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zTnCZJcfP6kC }}</ref><ref name="aam">{{cite web |url=http://about-musicians.com/mathias-georges-amedee-saint-clair.htm |title=All about musicians: Mathias, Georges Amedee Saint Clair |access-date=2009-12-02}}</ref>
After finishing his studies, he taught piano at the Conservatoire from 1862 to 1893.<ref name="ccc">{{cite book |title=The Cambridge companion to Chopin | series = Cambridge Companions to Music|last=Samson |first=Jim |year=1995 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=0-521-47752-2 |page=194 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=spdmAgb78xwC }}</ref> Among his notable students were Teresa Carreño, Camille Chevillard, Paul Dukas, Camille Erlanger, James Huneker, Henri O'Kelly, Isidor Philipp, Raoul Pugno, Alfonso Rendano, Erik Satie, Eugénie Satie-Barnetche, Ernest Schelling, Ernesto Elorduy, José Tragó and Alberto Williams.
Mathias and Karol Mikuli, another student of Chopin, significantly influenced the way their teacher's style was communicated to later generations of musicians.<ref name="ccc" /> Besides teaching, Mathias was also active as a concert pianist. On 14 March 1864, he was the principal pianist at the premiere of Gioachino Rossini's ''Petite messe solennelle''.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://humanities.uchicago.edu/orgs/ciao/Introductory/Essays%20from%20CIAO/Petite%20Messe%20versions.htm |title=Rossini's Petite Messe solennelle and Its Several Versions |author=Philip Gossett |access-date=2009-12-06 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100609090844/http://humanities.uchicago.edu/orgs/ciao/Introductory/Essays%20from%20CIAO/Petite%20Messe%20versions.htm |archive-date=2010-06-09 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
He was awarded the Legion of Honour in 1872.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.patrimoine-de-france.org/hommes/honneurs-302.html |title=Annuaires des titulaires de la Légion d'Honneur |language=fr |access-date=2009-12-02 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090606060013/http://www.patrimoine-de-france.org/hommes/honneurs-302.html |archive-date=2009-06-06 }}</ref> He died in Paris in 1910, on his 84th birthday.
==Works== thumb|left|Georges Mathias His compositions include overtures to ''Hamlet'' and ''Mazeppa'', five ''morceaux symphoniques'' for piano and strings, two piano concertos, six piano trios, a symphony, ''Oeuvres choisies pour le piano'', ''Études de genre'', ''Études de style et de mécanisme'', a collection of two and four-hand piano pieces, and transcriptions including the one of some scenes from Mozart's ''The Magic Flute''.<ref name="aam" />
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== *{{IMSLP|id=Mathias, Georges}} *[http://musicsack.com/PersonFMTDetail.cfm?PersonPK=100037203 Information about Mathias in other sources]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Mathias, Georges}} Category:1826 births Category:1910 deaths Category:French Romantic composers Category:French male composers Category:19th-century French male classical pianists Category:19th-century French classical pianists Category:Conservatoire de Paris alumni Category:French piano educators Category:Academic staff of the Conservatoire de Paris Category:Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour Category:Musicians from Paris Category:Pupils of Fromental Halévy Category:Pupils of Frédéric Chopin Category:Burials at Montmartre Cemetery