Born in Greifswald, northern Germany, Frederick Nussen (1715/16–1779) blossomed as a composer in England, where for most of his adult life he worked as the steward (estate manager) of the music-loving Francis Greville, Lord Brooke, while also acting as a private music tutor to this nobleman and his family. The favourable reception accorded to his four collections of instrumental music published between 1749 and 1775, combined with his popularity as a person, helped to earn him membership of the Royal Music Band in 1767, even though he continued to serve the Greville family devotedly almost up to his death.

By his own choice, Nussen did not participate in public concert life, but there was nothing amateurish about his music, which unfailingly reveals excellent musical training, abundant inventiveness and a talent for combining new stylistic traits with old ones. His earliest published works, the six violin sonatas of 1749, are among the best of their kind to emerge in England half-way through the century.

 Music example: Sonata 4 (pdf)
 Music example: Sonata 5 (pdf)
 Music example: Sonata 6 (pdf)