Clara Schumann
1819-1896
Period of Music: Romantic
Country: Germany
Instruments she played: piano
Major compositions: piano music
Interesting Facts:
-Clara was considered
to be one of the greatest pianists of all time.
-She had a direct
influence on the music of Robert Schumann and
Johannes Brahms.
-She was married to
Robert Schumann who had been a student of
her father, one of the leading piano teachers in Germany.
-Clara could hardly
talk as a child and didn’t start speaking normally
until age eight.
-Her concerts were so
popular that police had to be called in to control
crowds.
-Clara was known as
“Queen of the Piano”.
-The Schumanns had
eight children, three of which became piano
teachers.
-Clara was one of the
first pianists to perform concerts from memory.
“Composing gives me great
pleasure... there is nothing that surpasses the joy of creation, if only
because through it one wins hours of self-forgetfulness, when one lives in a
world of sound.”
-Clara Schumann
