William Henry Fry was an American composer and music journalist of the 19th century known for his operas, symphonies, and overtures. He was born in Philadelphia in 1813, and his musical talents were evident from a very young age. As a boy, he learned the piano by eavesdropping on his older brother’s piano lessons. He composed his first orchestral overture by the age of 18 while a student at Mount St. Mary’s School in Maryland. Later, he studied composition with Leopold Meignen, a graduate of the Paris Conservatory and former military bandleader who served under Napoleon. Under Meignen’s guidance, Fry composed an additional three overtures and two incomplete operas. One of his overtures, which is now lost, was premiered in 1833 by the Philadelphia Philharmonic Society conducted by Meignen. Around 1836, he returned to Philadelphia and worked as a journalist for his father, who was the publisher for the National Gazette newspaper. His second complete opera, Leonora, was premiered in 1845, and it was the first-ever performance of an opera by an American composer. He relocated to Paris in 1846, where he worked for several major American newspapers as a European correspondent. After his return to the U.S. in 1852, he became the music critic and political editor of the New York Tribune, and he gave a series of lectures regarding music theory, history, and the state of classical music in the U.S. Through these lectures and his writings, he became known as a champion for American composers. He returned to composing and quickly produced the orchestral works The Breaking Heart, A Day in the Country, and Santa Claus, which was premiered on December 23, 1853. Although it was one of the first-ever orchestral works to include the saxophone, the performance received mixed reviews, which led to a long and public written debate between Fry and critic Richard Storrs Willis. Fry continued to compose orchestral and symphonic works, and sacred works such as the Mass in E flat and the Stabat Mater oratorio until his death from tuberculosis in 1864. His music can be heard on the albums Fry: Santa Claus Symphony and Classics of American Romanticism: Bristow, Fry. ~ RJ Lambert, Rovi