OTTO BLANKART
Mr. Blankart studied the violin in Mannheim, Germany, with Carl Heydt, second violin of the then renowned Jean Becker quartette. Notwithstanding his showing of great talent in his youth, his father refused to send him to the Leipsig Conservatory because of trouble with his ears. His father apprenticed him to a wholesale coffee house. When twenty-one years old he left for America. He went first to his sister in Indianapolis, then to Quincy, Ill., where he took up his violin studies again, played in concerts with Eastern pianists, got pupils, besides having a position in a music store. There he met and married Mrs. Blankart and they worked together constantly. About 1874 he came to San Francisco and gradually he gained ground as a teacher and did very well. When the Blankarts had their studios on Geary street, near Larkin, about 1882-89, they gave musicals every two weeks, and musicians like Edgar S. Kelly, Fred Zech, Jr., Otto Bendix, Luchesi, Miss Hanchette and others played there. During those years Professor Blankart formed also, in connection with Miss Hanchette, the Beethoven Quartette club and gave for several seasons in succession public concerts. In the early nineties he left San Francisco for Oakland. He went about three times to Europe on business matters, but as usual discovered that it is better to stay with one's profession than to change, and eventually, after some time, came back to the fold and worked in a quiet way; that is, he practiced hard and gave lessons. He has had the satisfaction of giving pleasure and rousing interest for the better classical music.