Franz A. Ballaseyus (1852–1922) was born in Ueckermunde, Prussia, and spent his youth in Stettin, Prussia (now Szczecin, Poland). One of his early music instructors was Carl Loewe, a famous lieder composer. Ballaseyus came from a seafaring family and became a sailor at age seventeen. He served on several German ships and in 1877 received a commission as Unter-Lieutenant in the German Naval Reserve.


Between 1879 and 1882, Ballaseyus studied music in Hamburg, Germany. In 1883 he relocated to the United States and worked as a church organist and teacher in Chicago. In the ensuing years, Ballaseyus taught music at several locations: in 1887, he became director of the music department at the State University of South Dakota; in 1891, he was named director of the Garretson Conservatory of Music and Art in Sioux City, Iowa; and in 1892, he accepted a position as a professor at Virginia’s Hollins Institute.


In July 1900 Ballaseyus became the musical director at Oahu College (now Punahou School) in Honolulu. He arrived in Honolulu with his family on September 13, 1900, and worked for the college and lived on college grounds until 1903. He also directed the local Philharmonic Society, which had been founded in 1901, and was the first musical director of the Honolulu Symphony Society, founded in 1902 as a male-only club for amateur players. He was soon replaced as head of the Symphony Society because the board of directors were dissatisfied with his leadership.


Shortly afterward, the Ballaseyus family moved to northern California, where Ballaseyus worked as a high school music teacher in various locations. Ballaseyus died in 1922 in Alameda County, California. He was survived by three children, one of whom, Virginia, became a composer.