Gustav Stolpe compositions

Gustav Stolpe (1833-1901) was a well-known and successful Swedish musician and composer by the time Augustana College invited him to direct their music program in 1882. Stolpe graduated from Stockholm, Sweden’s Royal Conservatory of Music with a degree of Music Director at the age of 22. He composed and performed music for organ, piano and violin and toured Sweden accompanying internationally recognized soprano, Jenny Lind. Before coming to Augustana College, Stolpe had been a professor of music at colleges in Warberg, Sweden. Stolpe ran the Conservatory of Music at Augustana from its inception in 1884 until 1898. Under his direction, the conservatory grew to enroll over 150 students. Besides directing choir, he taught courses on music history and theory as well as lessons in organ, violin, and voice. When he left Augustana, in 1898, it took five instructors to replace him. In the last few years of his life, Gustav Stolpe ran a small music school in Rock Island, Illinois, and then became the director of the music department at Upsala College in New Jersey, where he died in 1901.