James Monroe Deems

James Monroe Deems (January 5, 1818 – April 18, 1901) was an American composer, music educator, and Union Army officer. During the American Civil War, he served as lieutenant colonel and was later brevetted as a brigadier general. After studying music in Dresden, he taught music at the University of Virginia and was one of the first conductors at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore. He was known for writing the 1850 book Vocal Music Simplified and composing the oratorio Nebuchadnezzar.

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