A leading violinist of his time, Ole Bull also played a significant part as a performer and a composer in the musical life of his native Norway. It was through him that Grieg embarked on a career in music. He was a man of wide interests and lively character, involved at one time in the establishment of a Norwegian colony in the United States, as well as in the design of new forms of the violin and the piano. His compositions, many of which are lost, inevitably included a quantity of works for the violin.