By Tom Collins

Ludwig Thomas, an extraordinary German pianist who immigrated to America in 1879 and made Prescott his new home in late 1885, attracted a goodly number of pupils and reigned as the town's musical maestro for eight years. After enlivening the 1886 Firemen's Ball with his quartet, he entered enthusiastically into the town's cultural and political scene. He married Addah Case in July 1886 and became a founding member of the local Republican League Club in 1892.

Between 1887 and 1890, Thomas conducted an average of six vocal and instrumental concerts per year, featuring the best singers in town: soprano Jessie E. Stevens, Messrs. Vanderbilt, Brown, Dauphin, and Carpenter, Miss Amelia Rush, and Mrs. J.C. Martin. Solo arias, duets, trios and quartettes, all accompanied by Thomas on the piano or full orchestra, ravished the ears of the hearers. Most of these were "pops" concerts, with music by long-forgotten composers, while some included works by Verdi, Donizetti and Flotow.

Perhaps the most notable of Thomas' efforts in 1888-1889 were the four Grand Operatic Concerts at the Prescott Opera House. Thomas combined both Fort Whipple and Prescott musicians - "the best ever heard here," according to the Miner, referring to the Oct. 24, 1888, concert. The concert was given in full costume, the garments rented from San Francisco "at great expense." The Miner pronounced the orchestra "the most complete ever heard in Prescott."

As if this weren't sufficiently splendid, Thomas gave his second operatic concert on Nov. 27, featuring the same orchestra and singers, the performance enhanced by both scenery and costumes. It must have been a challenge staging such a huge production on a stage that was reportedly only 10 feet deep, with a proscenium opening about 20 feet wide and only about 12 feet high.

The third concert in this series took place on Jan. 25, 1889, and the Miner took care to mention that Thomas himself had especially written a portion of the instrumentation.

Encouraged by the response to this series, on June 8, 1889, Thomas conducted a fourth concert. By this time he had probably exhausted the public's interest in this type of concert, so, on Sept. 27, 1889, he offered a recital of predominantly piano and violin music.

In the meantime, in 1891, Aitken and Goldwater, lessees, were in the process of completely renovating Levi Bashford's little opera house in Howey's Hall. They gutted the interior and moved the theatre from the second floor to the first, deepening the stage from 10 feet to about 20 and adding dressing rooms at the rear of the building. For the grand re-opening, Ludwig Thomas and Joe Dauphin prepared a magnificent revival of "H.M.S. Pinafore." It ran four nights (Oct. 21-24) to packed houses and was Thomas' grandest production.

The culmination of Thomas' efforts was the Wyckoff Club (1892-1893), a choral group named for the gifted baritone and organist Reverend Edwin D. Wyckoff. This group seems to have met in private homes principally for their own edification, although they did offer a number of public concerts. In August 1892, they performed Cowen's cantata "The Rose Maiden" at the Prescott Opera House. They also offered a variety of musical pieces at the Congregational Church in March 1893. Unfortunately, for reasons unknown, the club disbanded in May 1893.

It must have come as a shock when the Thomases moved abruptly to California in November 1893. Perhaps the exodus of fine singers like Harry Carpenter, Joe Dauphin and Jessie Stevens in previous years, not to mention the dissolution of the Wyckoff Club, prompted the professor to seek greener pastures. Achille LaGuardia and the Fort Whipple Band filled the void he left, but it would be a long time before Prescott amateurs would ever perform such grand music again.

Tom Collins, a professor emeritus of theatre, is the author of "Stage-Struck Settlers in the Sun-Kissed Land," a history of the amateur theatre in Territorial Prescott. He is a volunteer in the archives at Sharlot Hall Museum.

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