Robert Thallon
Robert Thallon
| Robert Thallon | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| File:Thallon, Robert.jpg | |||||||
| Residence | 11 Chester Terrace, Regent's Park | ||||||
| |||||||
Contents
Notes
Office Notes
House Notes
proposed 1871.12.18
Notes From Elsewhere
is this him?
Robert Thallon (1816-1882) was born in Glasgow, Scotland, and was married there in 1843 to Jemima McCunn (1818-1895). The couple had four children: John, Robert, James and Florence. In 1853, the family came to America where Robert Thallon was one of the founders of the New York Produce Exchange and a pioneer in the exportation of provisions. Mr. Thallon remained enthusiastic about his native country, and studied her literature; he worshiped Robert Burns, of whose writings he owned a number of original manuscripts, and was for many years the president of the Robert Burns Club of New York. He was also "a musician of prominence in the city and identified very largely with its music interests."
After retiring from business in 1864, the Thallon family moved to Europe where they lived for ten years, mainly in Germany, for the purpose of education. It was during this period that Robert Thallon, Jr. (1852-1910) studied at the Leipzig Conservatory and was a pupil of Sig. Vannucinni in Florence, Italy, becoming an accomplished organist, pianist, violinist and conductor. After the family moved back to Brooklyn in 1874, Thallon, Jr. was organist for seven years at the Reformed Episcopal Church of the Messiah, after which he presided over the great organ at Plymouth Congregational Church. For twenty-five years, Robert Thallon, Jr. maintained a studio in the family mansion at 900 St. Mark's Avenue. Starting in 1885, and continuing for sixteen seasons, Thallon, Jr. presented more than 600 weekly morning concerts with the assistance of his students, family and other invited musicians; these private concerts at 900 St. Mark's Avenue were the center of much musical life in Brooklyn. When the mansion was sold, in 1901, Thallon, Jr. established his studio in the Pouch Mansion, on Clinton Avenue, and the concerts continued on monthly evenings for the next year or so.
