Franz Wilczek

Franz Rudolph Wilczek (3 March 1869 – 15 January 1916) was an Austrian-born American violinist, music teacher, and author. He had an active performance career from 1878 through 1915. He performed as a concert violinist with many of the top American orchestras, including the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. From 1893 to 1901 he performed in annual tours with his own ensemble, the Franz Wilczek Concert Company. He was head of the Omaha Conservatory of Music from 1904 to 1906, after which he taught violin in Los Angeles, Paris, and Berlin. His book Shall I Go to Europe to Study? was published by John Friedrich & Bro. in 1913. At the end of his life he lived in Chicago where he died of cancer in 1916.

For part of his career Wilczek played on a Stradivarius violin owned by W. C. Clopton of New York. When not using this instrument, he used a violin made by John Friedrich which he owned. This violin was constructed from repurposed wood that had once been part of a table built generations earlier by Native Americans, and allegedly given by them to the first white child born in the Wyoming Valley after the Wyoming Massacre.