American musical conductor, born near Dublin, Ireland, on the 25th of December 1830; was a member of the brass band at Athlone which played instrumental parts during mass at the Catholic Church. He proceeded to the United States in 1849, and soon became a bandmaster in Boston, playing in concerts and circuses. He went to Salem, where he remained four years, returning to Boston with the record of having successfully conducted over one thousand band concerts, and organized, in the latter city, in 1858, what became famous in America and Europe as Gilmore’s Band. On the outbreak of the Civil War he and his men volunteered with the Twenty-fourth Massachusetts Regiment. In 1864 he was placed in charge of all the bands of the Gulf by General Banks. In 1869 and 1872 he organized the peace jubilee in Boston, the largest musical festival ever held, in which more than twenty thousand people and two thousand musicians, aided by some of the best military bands from Europe, took part. Mr. Gilmore removed to New York City, became bandmaster of the Twenty-second Regiment, and inaugurated the famous popular concerts which were given in Gilmore’s Garden. During the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia in 1876, his band furnished music daily in the Main Hall. In 1878 he gave concerts at the Paris Exposition, winning distinguished honors. During this year he visited most of the leading European cities. On his return to America, during several successive summers his band gave concerts at Manhattan Beach, Coney Island. In New York City his band of one hundred pieces ushered in the four hundredth anniversary of the discovery of America by Columbus, which celebration took place in front of the City Hall, in the presence of an audience of thirty thousand people. He was chosen musical director of the World’s Columbian Exposition, the appointment reaching him just two days before his death, and regarded by him the greatest honor any musician had ever received. Among his compositions are Good News from Home; When Johnny Comes Marching Home; The Voice of the Departing Soul; or, Death’s at the Door; and the anthems Columbia, which he fondly hoped would become national, and Ireland to England. He died in St. Louis on the 24th of September 1892.
