page_title: Ludwig-Wilhelm Tepper de Ferguson
section_title: In Russia
hierarchical_section_title: Ludwig-Wilhelm Tepper de Ferguson / Biography / In Russia
caption_attribution_description: English: Printed music sheet of the 'Six Years. The Farewell Song of the Furst Students of the Imperial Lycee in Tsarskoe Selo.' 1835.
context_page_description: Ludwig-Wilhelm Tepper de Ferguson was a Polish–Russian musician and composer, a music teacher mainly associated with the Imperial Lycée in Tsarskoye Selo.
context_section_description: In autumn 1797 he came to St. Petersburg, Russia, where Tepper's bank used to have business partners and was well known to the Russian aristocracy.  There he started his career as a music teacher and composer. Many of his musical compositions which have been preserved in the libraries of St. Petersburg, Vienna, Hamburg, and Weimar, bear dedications to famous members of the St. Petersburg society, such as Princess Golitsyna, Princess Kourakine, and Countess Mniszek.
  From 1800, Tepper held the post of the court Kapellmeister, after Giuseppe Sarti. He taught music to Grand Duchesses Helena, Maria, Ekaterina, and Anna, the younger sisters of the Emperor Alexander I. In 1811–1812, Tepper de Ferguson gave music lessons to Elizabeth Alexeievna, the consort of Alexander I.
  He participated in earlier St. Petersburg performances of Haydn's oratorio The Creation (1801 and later). From 1802, he was a member of the newly founded St. Petersburg Philharmonic Society and regularly took part in its concerts.  In 1812, his own oratorio Te Deum was performed in St. Petersburg.
  In 1802 he married Jeanne-Henriette Severin (1780–1823), a daughter of a wealthy St. Petersburg banker. Her sister was the wife of the Portuguese diplomat and merchant José Pedro Celestino Velho (1755–1802). Tepper and Jeanne-Henriette brought up Jeanne-Henriette's niece, Josephine Velho (1802–1820) who was born just after her father's death. From the 1810s, the Teppers lived in Tsarskoe Selo. Their house has survived and is still known as "Tepper's House".
  From 1816, Tepper taught choir singing and music at the Imperial Lycée, where his pupils included Alexander Pushkin. Tepper composed music for the amateur theatrical performances which took place in the Lycée, and organised a choir of the Lycée students which gave informal performances in Tsarskoe Selo. In 1817, he composed music to the "Six Years, the Farewell Song of the First Students of the Imperial Lycée in Tsarskoe Selo", the words of which were written by Anton Delvig. The Farewell Song is one of the best-known Tepper compositions. In 1818, he composed choral music for the consecration of the new Evangelical church in Tsarskoe Selo. In the words of Wilhelm Küchelbecker, "Music, full of feeling and expression, is worth our honourable friend, good Tepper."
caption: L-W Tepper de Ferguson.'Six Years.' The Farewell Song of the first students of the Imperial Lycee in Tsarskoe Selo
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