A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Riseley, George

RISELEY, George, born at Bristol, Aug. 28, 1845; elected chorister of Bristol Cathedral in 1852, and in Jan. 1862 articled to Mr. John Davis Corfe, the Cathedral organist, for instruction in the organ, pianoforte, harmony, and counterpoint. During the next ten years he was organist at various churches in Bristol and Clifton, at the same time acting as deputy at the Cathedral. In 1870 he was appointed organist to the Colston Hall. Bristol, where he started weekly recitals of classical and popular music, and in 1876 succeeded Mr. Corfe as organist to the Cathedral. During the last five years, Mr. Riseley has devoted his energies to the improvement of orchestral music in Bristol, where he has now collected an excellent orchestra of fifty players. In 1877 he started his orchestral concerts, which have won for him a well-deserved reputation. Notwithstanding considerable opposition, and no small pecuniary risk, he has continued, during each season, to give fortnightly concerts, at which the principal works of the classical masters have been well performed, and a large number of interesting novelties by modern writers, both English and foreign, produced.

[ W. B. S. ]