Sons of industry?

[Jimfin]

Recently listening to some Armstrong Gibbs, I noticed that he was from the toothpaste family as in Gibbs SR, which set me thinking: in addition to Gibbs, Beecham was the son of the creator of the chemists and Beecham's Powders, Dunhill was from a famous tobacco company of the same name, and Somervell was apparently the son of the founder of K Shoes. Does anyone know any other examples and can we expect Richard Branson to father a composer soon? I'm currently assuming that Lionel Sainsbury has no connection with the supermarket chain...

[erato]

Poulenc was (I think) from the industrial family that resulted in the Rhone-Poulenc industrial/chemical conglomerate.

[febnyc]

Abraham Mendelssohn, the father of Felix, was a principal at the renowned Mendelssohn & Company - prominent bankers who dominated central European finance from the early nineteenth century until the Nazis arrived.

In today's world, Steven Perillo, son of Mario Perillo who established Perillo Tour Company, is a classical composer.  I've never heard any of his music, however - so I cannot say how "classical" he actually is.   

[alberto]

Vittorio Gnecchi (1876-1954) , author of the opera Cassandra (premiered by Toscanini in 1905), was the son of a rich textile industrial.
Vittorio Gnecchi himself would be worthy of a thread. His opera Cassandra (libretto by Illica) suffered an unlucky fate, as some Gnecchi supporters claimed (not completely without reasons) that Cassandra would have inspired some passages of Strauss Elektra (premiered in 1909).( In 1905 the young Gnecchi, in Torino, presented Strauss , who was rehearsing the Italian premiere of Salome, with a score of Cassandra).
Gnecchi maintained some champions and advocates like Schneevoigt, Cleofonte Campanini and even the obviously Straussian Mengelberg. After the '20s Cassandra  disappeared from the stages.
Cassandra has had a number of revivals in the last years.
In 2000 there was a recording at the Festival of Montpellier (cond. Enrique Diemecke).
In 2010 at the Deutsche Opern, Berlin, Donald Runnicles conducted in the same evening a series performances of the double bill "Cassandra (slightly cut) and Elektra".   

[shamokin88]

In the USA the Converse family firm made athletic shoes, "sneakers," which allowed Frederick Converse - of recent Dutton fame - to pursue his career as a composer. For that matter our violinist Albert Spalding, pursued his career with income from his family's firm - they made athletic gear, baseball gloves and the like. Both firms are very much in business.

Philadelphia-based composer Constant Vauclain had the Baldwin Locomotive Works behind him, our biggest builder of steam locomotives. He must have been distant kin of Baldur von Schirach, Nazi youth leader - both descended from Matthias Baldwin, the firm's founder. Both Baldwin and the Nazis are out of business. Boston-based composer Daniel Pinkham was the scion of a family that made a 19th-century tonic for "women's complaints" named for his grandmother or great grandmother, Lydia Pinkham. Once full of controlled substances it sold well to persons with no complaints.

Glazounov's family owned the biggest book-publishing house in pre-1917 Russia.

One of Mussolini's sons was a jazz musician. After the war he played in Rome with, I think, Dizzy Gillespie who, wanting to say something nice but unsure what reportedly said to him "Sorry about your old man."

And although this is very much a non-sequitur, I read this week that Chicago-based composer John Alden Carpenter ran off with the woman who was to become Adlai Stevenson's mother-in-law.

How is that for pointless information?

[Lionel Harrsion]

York Bowen's father was the owner of the whisky distillers Bowen and McKechnie.   

[Rob H]

"Boston-based composer Daniel Pinkham was the scion of a family that made a 19th-century tonic for "women's complaints" named for his grandmother or great grandmother, Lydia Pinkham. Once full of controlled substances it sold well to persons with no complaints.!

Interesting to see this - I note from google that "the Ballad of Lydia Pinkham" inspired a song that was on the radio all the time as I grew up - "Lily the Pink" by the Scaffold.

[Revilod]

Frederic D'Erlanger was a banker and came from a banking family.

[Christo]

While Armstrong Gibbs could provide for the toothpase, Alan Rawsthorne was actually trained a dentist. Concerning his first profession, Rawsthorne is on record as having said "I gave that up, thank God, before getting near anyone's mouth", while his friend, Constant Lambert, quipped "Mr Rawsthorne assures me that he has given up the practice of dentistry, even as a hobby" (quoted on Wikipedia).

[jerfilm]

Edward, old friend, you are a treasure trove of music trivia.  Thanks for taking the time and for the chuckles along the way.

Jerry

[Dundonnell]

While Armstrong Gibbs could provide for the toothpase, Alan Rawsthorne was actually trained a dentist. Concerning his first profession, Rawsthorne is on record as having said "I gave that up, thank God, before getting near anyone's mouth", while his friend, Constant Lambert, quipped "Mr Rawsthorne assures me that he has given up the practice of dentistry, even as a hobby" (quoted on Wikipedia).

Wilfred Josephs actually qualified as a dentist  Robert Simpson spent two years studying medicine at university.

[BFerrell]

The Bax family and MacIntosh raincoats. Elliott Carter's family was the owner of Carter's Little Liver Pills.

[rbert12]

Gordon Getty (n.212 in Forbes list, according to Wikipedia) is a also classical composer. Marc Blitzstein was from a very well to do family, owner of a railroad company, I seem to remenber.
In Spain, Joaquim Homs (1906-2003), the main disciple of Robert Gerhard, was a well known industrial engineer.

[Revilod]

As we all know the members of the "Mighty Handful" followed other professions outside music. Ives sold insurance and William Wallace was an ophthalmic surgeon.

Prince Louis Ferdinand, composer and pianist, was also a soldier, fighting against Napoleon. On the day after he gave the first performance of Dussek's Double Piano Concerto (with Dussek at the other piano) he was killed at the Battle of Saalfeld. (Moral: Battle plans before piano practice!)

Does anyone know any of the prince's music? Some has been recorded.

[erato]

George Antheil patented (with Hedy Lamarr) the principles of spread spectrum technology now of central importance in modern telecommunications.