His first lessons were from his father, an organist. As a child he showed remarkable gifts for pianoforte playing. He performed a sonatina in public at the age of four, and played percussion in the orchestra in his early years.

He then studied under Christian Heinrich Rinck at Darmstadt, Germany in 1835, and as early as 1836 went to Paris, where for twelve years he often associated with Luigi Cherubini, Frédéric Chopin, Franz Liszt and other musicians, and enjoyed the friendship of such great literary figures as Alfred de Musset and George Sand. He had started a set of chamber concerts with Jean-Delphin Alard and Auguste Franchomme with great success.

He had completed one series of them when the revolution of 1848 drove him from Paris, and he settled, with his first wife and two children, in London.
He conducted elsewhere in the country also, as well as performing as a pianist. He was the first pianist to play the complete series of Beethoven's piano sonatas in England.

He moved to Manchester in 1853 to direct Manchester's Gentleman's Concerts, which had its own orchestra and in May 1857 was asked to put together a small orchestra to play for Prince Albert at the opening ceremony of the Art Treasures of Great Britain, the biggest single exhibition Manchester had ever hosted. Hallé accepted the challenge and was so happy with the results that he kept the group together until October, forming the fledgling Hallé Orchestra.

He then started a series of concerts of his own, raising the orchestra to a pitch of perfection quite unknown in England at that time. Hallé decided to continue working with the orchestra as a formal organisation, and it gave its first concert under those auspices on 30 January 1858.

In 1888, Hallé was married for a second time to the violinist Wilma Neruda. The same year, he was knighted; and in 1890 and 1891 he toured with his wife in Australia and elsewhere. In 1891, he also helped to found the Royal Manchester College of Music, serving as head and chief professor of pianoforte.
Source: Wikipedia

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