Frederick Neil Innes

Composer during 1903 - 1915 Born 1854 died 1926 As a young boy he was already playing trombone in the Life Guards Band of London England, where his father before him was a cornetist in the same band. lnnes started his musical career at age eight as a chorister in the choir of St. Paul's Church, Knightsbridge, London, England. Besides the trombone, he studied violin, piano and harmony at the London Conservatory of Music. He was then twenty- one and beginning to dazzle the public with his brilliant trombone playing. He went directly to Paris, where he vas engaged as special trombone soloist at the Follies Bergere, which was a new medium in this city. His first major engagement was at the Chicago Worlds Fair in 1893. His band played at numerous Expositions including the Omaha Exposition in 1898, the Buffalo Exposition in 1910, St. Louis Exposition in 1904, and the San Francisco Fair in 1915. The last important engagements of the lnnes Band were the Cotton Exposition in Waco, Texas, and the Corn Palace in Mitchell, South Dakota. In 1914, Innes moved to Denver, Colorado, where he succeeded Mr. Al. Sweet as conductor of the Denver Municipal Band, continuing in this capacity until 1916, when he opened his Music School; however he continued to contract outside engagements with his concert band until 1920. Innes remained in Denver until after his wife's death in 1923. He moved to Chicago in 1923, where he became head of the Conn Band School. In late 1926, he was stricken with heart trouble and died in a Chicago sanatorium on December 31, 1926.