Feliks Janiewicz (Felix Yaniewicz) (1762–1848)

Feliks Janiewicz was born in Vilnius in 1762. A virtuoso violinist, he refined his playing in Italy and performed in Paris before settling in Britain in the early 1790s, where he took the name Felix Yaniewicz.

He worked as a soloist and conductor in London, Liverpool and then Edinburgh, and was one of the founding members of the Philharmonic Society of London (1813). He died in Edinburgh in 1848.

He wrote violin concertos, chamber music and ballroom dances published for piano. The site’s piece, Les Lanciers, belongs to this repertoire of quadrilles that were all the rage in the 19th century.