Carl Lafite was an Austrian composer, organist, choirmaster, conductor, programmer, organizer, music educator, critic and piano accompanist to song.
Carl Lafite and his father had the same name. The painter Carl Lafite (1830-1900), composed a chivalric opera at the age of 8. He received early inspiration through neighborly contacts with Eduard Strauss. After attending the Gymansium, he studied organ and piano under Anton Door and composition under E. Robert, Johann Nepomuk Fuchs, and Anton Bruckner at the Conservatory of the Society of Friends of Music in Vienna from 1889-93. In 1898, he passed the state examination. Previously, he worked in Olomouc (1894-96) as a teacher of organ and harmony at the city music school, where he organized so-called "Schubertiades." In 1895 and 1897 Lafite performed as a pianist with the star violinist František Ondříček, with whom he made concert tours in the Habsburg Empire and Russia. From 1898, he was back in Vienna.
Lafite was active in many ways: as organist (Piarist Church 1898-1910), as music prefect (K.K. Institute for the Blind 1898-01, Viennese Ladies' Choral Society and Viennese Choral Society from 1900), as a choral conductor (Viennese Singakademie 1901-06 with emphasis on the great choral works of Viennese Classicism and early Romanticism, at the same time ''Evangelischer Singverein'', ''Wiener Sängerbund'', for Franz Schalk 1910-12 ''Singverein der Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde'' in Vienna). Lafite taught basic theory in 1906 at the Duesberg Music School and was co-founder of the New Vienna Conservatory in 1909. In 1928, he designed the official Schubert celebrations with Otto Erich Deutsch. In the same year, he founded stylistic courses for artistic piano accompaniment as a special institution of the Academy of Music, which he led until 1938. In 1911, Lafite was appointed Secretary General of the ''Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde'' (before its centenary celebration in 1912). He guided its fortunes in stormy times until 1921 and moved to the directorate, as a member of which (until 1938) he wrote its chronicle 1912-37. Lafite was also present in public through music reviews as a critic and feature writer for the newspapers ''Wiener Allgemeine Zeitung'' from 1908, ''Neue Freie Presse'', ''Neues Wiener Tagblatt'' and ''Österreichische Volkszeitung'' until 1937. In 1912 he became a member of the Viennese fraternity ''Aldania''.
