CAWTHORNE, CHARLES WITTOWITTO (1854-1925), music-seller and concert-manager, was born on 30 June 1854 in Adelaide, …

At 14 Charles began studying piano with Louis Eselbach and violin with F. Draeger. He also became proficient on the bassoon. …

On most nights of the week Cawthorne was busy conducting, performing in and organizing musical entertainments. At 18 he was conducting the Adelaide Amateur Orchestra of forty players and had composed a prize-winning waltz. Another successful piece, the Olivia Waltz, sold well in London as the Southern Cross Waltz. On 9 September 1885 he married Amanda Dorothea Lellmann who shared his musical interests.

In the early 1890s Cawthorne formed a group of fifteen players known as the Adelaide Orchestra, which from 1893 formed the nucleus of Herman Heinicke's Grand Orchestra; Cawthorne continued to play bassoon and was secretary and treasurer. They became very popular: by 1896 they were staging thirteen concerts a year and the town hall was too small to hold all their patrons. In 1898 he began managing the short-lived students' Conservatorium Grand Orchestra. By now he was seen as a peerless manager. The two orchestras amalgamated to form the Conservatorium Grand Orchestra, soon renamed the Adelaide Grand Orchestra with Cawthorne as bassoonist and business manager.

On Christmas night 1899 they combined with the Adelaide Choral Society and the Orpheus Society in a splendid production of The Messiah. This became an annual high-light. Cawthorne continued composing: his orchestral piece Romance won the prize at a concert judged by public ballot in 1902. In 1910 he became founder and conductor of the Adelaide Orchestral Society.

In World War I he leased the German Club which became Queen's Hall, a venue for patriotic concerts. Cawthorne's 'breezy personality attracted talented musicians from all over Australia'. He also managed concerts for and helped to promote Clara Serena (Kleinschmidt), the Adelaide Choral Society, the Bach Choir, the Adelaide Liedertafel Society, the Metropolitan Male Voice Choir and the Adelaide Glee Club. He encouraged young musicians of talent and helped raise money for them to study abroad.

From Australian Dictionary of Biography