Leopold August Abel was a German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 violinist and composer. He was born in Köthen

Köthen (Anhalt)

Köthen is a city in Germany. It is the capital of the district of Anhalt-Bitterfeld in Saxony-Anhalt, about north of Halle.Köthen is the location of the main campus and the administrative center of the regional technical university Hochschule Anhalt which is especially strong in information...

 in 1717. He was the elder brother of Karl Friedrich Abel

Karl Friedrich Abel

Carl Friedrich Abel was a German composer of the Classical era. He was a fine player of the viola da gamba, and composed important music for that instrument.-Life:Abel was born in Köthen, the son of Christian Ferdinand Abel, the principal viola da gamba and cello...

. He studied violin

Violin

The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....

 under Benda

Benda

-Places:* Benda, Sirampog, a subdistrict of Sirampog, Central Java, Indonesia* Benda, Tangerang, a subdistrict of Tangerang, Banten, Indonesia* Benda, Guinea* Qulbəndə , a village and municipality in the Agdash Rayon, Azerbaijan...

. He played in the orchestra

Orchestra

An orchestra is a sizable instrumental ensemble that contains sections of string, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. The term orchestra derives from the Greek ορχήστρα, the name for the area in front of an ancient Greek stage reserved for the Greek chorus...

 of the theatre at Brunswick

Braunschweig

Braunschweig , is a city of 247,400 people, located in the federal-state of Lower Saxony, Germany. It is located north of the Harz mountains at the farthest navigable point of the Oker river, which connects to the North Sea via the rivers Aller and Weser....

, and was successively conductor of the court band to the Prince of Schwarzburg-Sondershausen (1758), the Margrave of Schwedt (1766), and the Duke of Schwerin (1770). He composed a sinfonia a 8 voci in 1766, and some of his violin studies and other compositions are in the possession of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde

Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde

The Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Wien , was founded in 1812 by Joseph von Sonnleithner, general secretary of the Court Theatre, Vienna, Austria. Its official charter, drafted in 1814, states that the purpose of the Society was to promote music in all its facets...

 at Vienna

Vienna

Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

. However, he never rose to the reputation of his brother. He died at Ludwigslust on August 25, 1794.