Jules Krüger was born in Luxembourg, in 1899. After studying violin, piano and harmony at the city’s conservatory, he continued his studies at the Royal Conservatory of Liège with notably Mathieu Crickboom, himself a pupil of Eugène Ysaÿe. After his first violin prize in 1917, he lived for several years in Brussels where he played in different orchestras, while continuing his studies with Mathieu Crickboom and taking harmony and counterpoint lessons with Henry Sarly, and later composition advice with Paul Gilson. He also met there his future wife, Julia Ladrière, a violinist like him. The great world crisis of 1930 forced him to return to Luxembourg, where he conducted several music bands for a few years, before becoming, in 1933, professor of violin at the conservatory of Esch / Alzette. He founded the Luxembourg Quartet, a piano quartet with which he gave concerts in Luxembourg and abroad until 1940 and participated in numerous radio programs. After the Second World War he founded the Luxembourg Piano Quartet which was to last until 1963. In 1947 he also became professor of violin at the Luxembourg Conservatory, a position he held until his retirement in 1966. At the same time, he taught harmony. A few years later, he retired with his wife to the Pescatore foundation and spent his last years of life disappointed by the lack of attention paid to his work as a composer. He died in 1976.

Jules Krüger is considered to be the first Luxembourg “symphonist” composer. Perhaps life in Brussels, where he found better possibilities than at home motivated him, he certainly also took benefit from the creation of the RTL orchestra and the commitment of Henri Pensis, but on the other hand, he suffered a lot from the poor artistic level of our cultural life. His work is not very abundant, but many compositions remain interesting, even after several decades, and are important for our national heritage. LMP hopes to help cultivate his memory and to underline his role.