Ludwig Minkus aka Léon Fyodorovich Minkus (March 23, 1826 — December 7, 1917), was a composer of ballet music and a violin virtuoso. Born Aloisius Ludwig Minkus in Velké Meziříčí (German: Grossmeseritsch), near Brno, Moravia, Austrian Empire, {today the Czech Republic}. He is most noted for the ballets he composed while serving as the First ballet composer to the St. Petersburg Imperial Theatres, a post which he occupied from 1871 until its abolition in 1886.