Friedrich Buxbaum

Friedrich Siegfried Buxbaum (23 September 1869, Vienna 2 October 1948, London) was an Austrian cellist and long-serving member (and principal cello) of the Vienna Philharmonic and Vienna State Opera, and member of the Rosé Quartet.

His Jewish father Max Buxbaum was from Bohemia, and mother Rosa Wilharditz was a member of the IKG Wien.

Buxbaum studied at the Vienna Conservatory from 1883–87, under the tutelage of Ferdinand Hellmesberger He played briefly in the Glasgow Symphony Orchestra in Scotland, was active as a soloist and a member of the Fitzner Quartet from 1893-1900, and then, on 1 October 1900, was accepted as a member of the Vienna Philharmonic and Vienna State Opera, and also became a member of the Rosé Quartet. He and his family escaped Vienna for the UK in September 1938; he was granted permanent residency in December.

In October 1946, the Vienna Philharmonic invited him to return to his seat as cello principal, from which, its correspondence said, "you were unlawfully driven away a few years ago," asking Buxbaum, to "give us the opportunity to set right at least a small portion of the wrongs that were done to you." Buxbaum, was never to return, but the orchestra awarded him its highest honor, the Nicolai Silver Medal in 1947 when it was touring in Edinburgh.