Ureli Corelli Hill was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 conductor

Conducting

Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance by way of visible gestures. The primary duties of the conductor are to unify performers, set the tempo, execute clear preparations and beats, and to listen critically and shape the sound of the ensemble...

, and the first president and conductor of the New York Philharmonic Society. His grandfather, Frederick Hill, was a fifer

Fifer

A fifer is a non-combatant military occupation of a foot soldier who originally played the fife during combat. The practice was instituted during the period of Early Modern warfare to sound signals during changes in formation, such as the line, and were also members of the regiment's military band...

 in the Revolutionary army. His father, Uri Keeler Hill

Uri Keeler Hill

Uri Keeler Hill was a Vermont composer. In 1805, Uri Hill became the organist for the Brattle Street Church in Boston. He moved to New York to continue his music career in 1810 and premiered an "Ode" in 1814...

, was a music teacher and composer. Ureli’s only sibling, George Handel “Yankee” Hill, was a writer and actor noted for his depiction of Yankee characters.

Hill served alternately as conductor and violinist with the New York Sacred Music Society between 1828 and 1835. In 1838 he directed the first American performance of Mendelssohn

Felix Mendelssohn

Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Barthóldy , use the form 'Mendelssohn' and not 'Mendelssohn Bartholdy'. The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians gives ' Felix Mendelssohn' as the entry, with 'Mendelssohn' used in the body text...

's cantata St. Paul. He studied in Germany for two years with the composer, conductor, and violinist Louis Spohr

Louis Spohr

Louis Spohr was a German composer, violinist and conductor. Born Ludewig Spohr, he is usually known by the French form of his name. Described by Dorothy Mayer as "The Forgotten Master", Spohr was once as famous as Beethoven. As a violinist, his virtuoso playing was admired by Queen Victoria...

. After returning to New York, Hill organized the meeting on April 2, 1842, at which the New York Philharmonic Society was founded. At the meeting, Hill was named the first President of the Society.

Hill opened the Society's inaugural concert on December 7, 1842 by conducting Beethoven's Fifth Symphony

Symphony No. 5 (Beethoven)

The Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op. 67, was written by Ludwig van Beethoven in 1804–08. This symphony is one of the most popular and best-known compositions in all of classical music, and one of the most often played symphonies. It comprises four movements: an opening sonata, an andante, and a fast...

. As was typical of this era, the concert featured several different conductors and a mixture of opera excerpts, full orchestral works, and chamber music. Later during the same concert, Hill played violin in a performance of a Hummel

Johann Nepomuk Hummel

Johann Nepomuk Hummel or Jan Nepomuk Hummel was an Austrian composer and virtuoso pianist. His music reflects the transition from the Classical to the Romantic musical era.- Life :...

 Piano Quintet. For the Orchestra’s third season, Hill invited both Spohr and Felix Mendelssohn

Felix Mendelssohn

Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Barthóldy , use the form 'Mendelssohn' and not 'Mendelssohn Bartholdy'. The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians gives ' Felix Mendelssohn' as the entry, with 'Mendelssohn' used in the body text...

 to conduct, however neither could accept, sending letters of acknowledgement instead. Both were later made honorary members of the Philharmonic. Hill continued to conduct the Society, in alternation with six others, until 1849.

Hill was in Ohio from 1847 to 1850, but returned to New York, and signed on as violinist, and board member of the Orchestra. In his capacity as board member, he became embroiled in the controversy over the nature of American music and the role the Orchestra should take to foster and promote American composers such as George Bristow

George Bristow

George Bristow was an English taxidermist, gunsmith and ornithologist of St Leonards-on-Sea in the borough of Hastings, East Sussex, south-east England....

 and William Henry Fry

William Henry Fry

For the woodcarver and gilder, see William H. Fry.William Henry Fry was a pioneering American composer, music critic, and journalist. Fry was the first person born in the United States to write for a large symphony orchestra, and the first to compose a publicly performed opera...

.

Hill had a series of failed artistic and business ventures. He invented a piano that would never go out of tune, as it used small bells instead of wire strings. He traveled as far as London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 in an effort to commercialize the instrument, but it did not succeed. He also made bad investments in real estate in New Jersey. These difficulties, combined with his forced retirement from the violins of the Philharmonic on account of his old age, are thought to have contributed to his taking his own life in 1875 at his home in Paterson, New Jersey

Paterson, New Jersey

Paterson is a city serving as the county seat of Passaic County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, its population was 146,199, rendering it New Jersey's third largest city and one of the largest cities in the New York City Metropolitan Area, despite a decrease of 3,023...

. His farewell note, written before swallowing an overdose of morphine

Morphine

Morphine is a potent opiate analgesic medication and is considered to be the prototypical opioid. It was first isolated in 1804 by Friedrich Sertürner, first distributed by same in 1817, and first commercially sold by Merck in 1827, which at the time was a single small chemists' shop. It was more...

, stated "Why should or how can a man exist and be powerless to earn means for his family?"