Théodore Ritter


Toussaint Prévost, known under the pseudonym Théodore Ritter was a 19th-century French composer and pianist.

Biography

The son of composer Eugène Prévost, he was a student of Hector Berlioz. He began his career as a baritone singer at La Monnaie in Brussels under the name Félix, then learned the piano with Franz Liszt. He quickly became a renowned pianist and began an international career under the name Théodore Ritter.
A member of the "Société des derniers concerts de Beethoven", he undertook a concert tour in Canada and the US with the violinist Frantz Jehin-Prume and the operatic singer Carlotta Patti in 1869–1870.
Among others, he was the teacher of Isidore Philipp and Samuel Sanford.
Married with the singer Alice Desgranges; his niece Gabrielle Ritter-Ciampi was also famous as a singer.
A chevalier of the Légion d'honneur, he is buried at cimetière du Père-Lachaise
He composed numerous pieces for piano and transcriptions, as well as piano versions of L'enfance du Christ and Roméo et Juliette by Berlioz.