Max Christian Friedrich Bruch (January 6, 1838 - October 2, 1920) was a German Romantic composer and conductor who wrote over 200 works, including three violin concertos. He received his early musical training under the composer and pianist Ferdinand Hiller. At the age of nine he wrote his first composition, a song for his mother's birthday. From then on music was his passion, his studies having been enthusiastically supported by his parents. Bruch had a long career as a teacher, conductor and composer, moving among musical posts in Germany. At the height of his career he spent three seasons as conductor of the Liverpool Philharmonic Society (1880-83). His complex and unfailingly well-structured works, in the German Romantic musical tradition, placed him in the camp of Romantic classicism exemplified by Johannes Brahms. His Violin Concerto No. 1, in G minor, Op. 26 (1866) is one of the most popular Romantic violin concertos. The two other works of Bruch which are still widely played were also written for solo string instrument with orchestra: the Scottish Fantasy for violin and orchestra and the Kol Nidrei, Op. 47, for cello and orchestra, which starts and ends with the solo cello's setting of the Kol Nidre (All Vows) incantation which begins the Jewish Yom Kippur service. He died in 1920 at the age of 82. No photographer credited, undated.