James Messeas
James Messeas was a Dutch cellist, member of Verbrugghen String Quartet.
Messeas was born in Amsterdam. His parents were Spanish, the father being the principal double bass in the Paleis voor Volksvlijt Orchestra. His uncle was violinist in Paris under Hector Berlioz. Both the father and the uncle provided the young Messeas with his initial musical training. In 1890, after studying the cello for only 12 months, he made a public recital of Julius Klengel's Concertino No. 1, Op. 7. The following year the boy went to Scotland. There he met Willy Benda, who gave him a scholarship at the Athenaeum School of Music. He later returned to Germany to finish his studies with Klengel.
In 1902 Messeas came back to Athenaeum and became a professor. He soon joined Henri Verbrugghen's String quartet and became the principal cellist of the Harrogate Symphony Orchestra. In 1915 together with the other members of the quartet he came to Australia, where he got professorship at the New South Wales Conservatorium of Music.
In summer 1918 he was the first cellist to give a performance of the complete cycle of Beethoven and Mendelssohn cello sonatas in Sydney.
In early 1920s the whole quartet moved further to Minneapolis. Messeas died in 1955 in that city.
The cello Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesù "Messeas" 1731 is named after him.
