The composer Philip Klitz (1805-1854) was born in Lymington in 1805 and moved to Southampton in c.1828. He was an accomplished piano player and violinist as well as a composer. He was organist at St Lawrence’s Church, and from 1845, at All Saints Church. He was one of the first composers to write songs for the black-face minstrels, two of which songs Miss Ginger and Dinah Dear became very popular. He advertised in local directories of the 1840s as a professor of music and offered instruction in singing. He was living in Carlton Place in 1841, but by 1851 had moved to 22 Portland Street. He died there in 1854.
His son George, born in 1836, also advertised in the 1859 street directory as a music teacher. Later generations of the family ran the Klitz piano shop in Bedford Place (image below).
Klitz's Piano Shop, Bedford Place
A photograph of 1941 showing Klize's Piano shop occupying Wilton Lodge.
Newspaper clipping:
Obituary from the Hampshire Independent 14 January 1854
Further reading:
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 2004, Volume 31.
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