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Franz Rudolph Wilczek (3 March 1869 – 15 January 1916) was an Austrian-born American violinist. He performed as a concert violinist with many of America’s top orchestras; including the New York Philharmonic, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.^[1]

Franz Rudolph Wilczek was born on 3 March 1869 in Graz, Austria.^[2] A child prodigy, he began his career as a concert violinist in Austria at the age of 9.^[3] After graduating from the Vienna Conservatory, he studied violin privately with Joseph Joachim.^[4] He was admitted into the Berlin Conservatory for further training, but was not able to attend due to being conscripted into the Austrian military. He appealed to Franz Joseph I to be released from his service but was refused.^[3] In order to escape work as a soldier,^[3] he left Austria for the United States in 1888 and became a naturalized American citizen.^[2]

Upon arriving in the United States, Wilczek went to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in December 1888 to visit an acquaintance of his, a Miss Mamie Reuck,^[3] who was also a violinist.^[5] There he performed with local amateur groups, such as the Ladies’ Choral Club^[6] and also appeared in concert with the American concert pianist Neally Stevens at the Pittsburgh Club Theater in January 1889.^[7] He left Pittsburgh for New York City where in February 1889 he gave his first performance in that city at Chickering Hall.^[8][9] He returned to Pittsburgh for performances at the Pittsburgh May Festival,^[10] and during that festival performed duets with Reuck.^[11] He later married Reuck in Allegheny, Pennsylvania on 3 October 1893.^[12]

In November 1889 Wilcek performed Pablo de Sarasate‘s Zigeunerweisen and Ludwig van Beethoven‘s Romance No. 1 and Romance No. 2 with Theodore Thomas and his orchestra at Pittsburgh’s Old City Hall;^[13] a program which was later repeated at New York’s Lenox Lyceum [de].^[14] In reviewing the latter concert, The Musical Courier critic stated:

“A genuine surprise and a most pleasing one was the first appearance here of Mr. Franz Wilczek, a young Austrian violinist and a pupil of Joachim. He came, played and conquered… He performed with exquisite tone, purity of intonation, excellent and finished technique and good bowing, and he pleased the public no less through the artistic value of his playing than by means of the charm and apparent modesty of his personality both of which acted like a genuine revelation. It goes without saying that the young artist was heartedly applauded and after a triple recall he added as an encore Sarasate’s difficult Zigeunerweisen, which, under Victor Herbert‘s direction of the orchestral accompaniment, was performed in a most brilliant manner.”^[15]

During the 1889-1890 season, Wilczek performed in a series of concerts in New York City at both the Lenox Lyceum and Steinway Hall.^[16] One of his concerts at the latter venue was with Metropolitan Opera baritone Theodor Reichmann.^[17] He also performed with the Amphion Musical Society of Brooklyn under conductor C. Mortimer Wiske.^[18]

He married Lena May Newton on 27 October 1906 in Ocean Park, California.^[19]

He play Max Bruch‘s Romance in A minor with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra in 1915.^[20]

He died of cancer on 15 January 1916 in Chicago.^{[21][22][23][24]}