One of Ritter's earliest students, Remmele became professor of viola and other subjects at the Dresden conservatory, and was for many years violist of a quartet with violinists Eduard Rappoldi and Paul Frohberg, and cellist Friedrich Grützmacher. He lived for a while in England, where he was interned for several months at the outbreak of World War I.
Balling began study with Hermann Ritter at Würzburg at the age of fourteen, having received a scholarship from the Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. His exceptional ability was noted at Bayreuth and he was elevated to the principal position. He founded a music school in Nelson, Australia, and returned to promote the viola alta as a soloist in London. Later, he turned more and more to conducting, leading the Halle orchestra and conducting the Bayreuth Festival orchestra. He collapsed after finishing the Ring Cycle there in 1925 and died two weeks later.
Meyer was a long-time violist, librarian, and historian at the court at Schwerin. He discovered and published numerous works for the viola — most famously the Stamitz Concerto in D Major — and made the first transcription for viola alta (or viola) of J.S. Bach's Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin, among many other transcriptions. He wrote an informative history of music at the Schwerin Hofkapelle, and played frequently in the Bayreuth Festival Orchestra.
Paul-Louis Neuberth, a student of Theophile Laforge, the first professor of viola at the Paris Conservatoire, was one of the preeminent French violists of his day. He traveled to Germany where he met and heard Hermann Ritter, and was so taken with the viola alta that he had one made for him by Paul Kaul, a luthier who enjoyed a strong but brief vogue in the early twentieth century. Neuberth performed frequently as a soloist on the instrument, often with York Bowen as pianist and Gaspar Cassadó on cello, wrote articles advocating its adoption, and commissioned, premiered, and transcribed works by Pierre Kunc, Marcelle Soulage, Jacques Ibert, Maurice Ravel, and others. His viola alta is preserved in the Musée de la Musique in Paris.
George Andrix is a composer, viola alta player, baroque violinist, competitive archer and black powder rifle shooter — among other activities. He is an accidental viola alta player: his stand-partner was trying an unusually large viola on approval, and asked him to play it for him. When the stand-partner decided not to buy it, Andrix snapped it up for $69, and has played it for the rest of his career. He commits what Hermann Ritter believed to be a great heresy: he continues to perform on the violin as well.
Carl Smith was born in New York. He performed with the Graz (Austria) Philharmonic Orchestra for more than three decades, conducted the Natal Philharmonic Orchestra in Durban, South Africa, and performed on the viola alta across Europe and in Asia and the United States. He wrote and spoke on the history of the viola alta and Hermann Ritter, whom he considered his posthumous mentor. He was also a wine-grower and power-lifter, a co-founder with Brian Smith of the World Powerlifting Federation.
Carl Smith was the author's introduction to the viola alta as a living instrument, and for this I owe him the deepest gratitude.
Born in Fukuoka Prefecture, he purchased a viola alta knowing little about it. He researched it as well as he was able, and wrote a short personal history on his relation to the instrument. He did much to promote not only the viola alta, but Croatian music as well. Performed on the viola alta at least in Japan, Austria, and Croatia.
Born in Münster, he studied viola with Rainer Moog, Michael Tree, and Barbara Westphal. He encountered a viola alta as a student and loved its sound, but having recently moved to the viola from the violin, he found the size too much to handle. Twenty-five years later, in Australia, he encountered another, and bought it immediately, naming it Fasolt; the next he found he named Fafner. He has given lecture-recitals on the instrument, for which he shows great affection, although he also performs on an Amati owned by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, of which he is the principal violist.
