Keffer Collection of Sheet Music, ca. 1790-1895 Content and design by John Bewley

Photograph of portrait of George Schetky by John Clarendon Darley, ca. 1821

George Schetky, son of composer and violoncellist Johann Georg Christoph Schetky (1737-1824), was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. In 1787 Schetky emigrated to Philadelphia where his uncle, Alexander Reinagle, was a prominent musical figure. Schetky led an active musical life in Philadelphia as a violoncellist, music teacher, composer, conductor, and publisher. In 1809 Schetky was one of the members of an early Philadelphia musical society called the Amateurs of Music, an organization that supported rehearsals of chamber music and sponsored a series of subscription concerts. This group may have been a precursor to the more successful organization begun in 1820, the Musical Fund Society of Philadelphia. Schetky was one of the founders of the society.

Benjamin Carr and George Schetky were partners in the music publishing firm Carr & Schetky from 1806 to 1811. Schetky had previously worked with Carr in 1803 on the publication of the final volumes of The Musical Journal for the Piano Forte. The initial volumes of the journal were published by Carr's father, Joseph Carr, in Baltimore. It was the most ambitious musical publication issued in America during the period and the first major American music publication offered in magazine form. Music was also issued separately under Schetky's name during the years 1803-1811 and again in 1819-1820.