Fanny Mendelssohn

Fanny Mendelssohn was a German pianist and composer from the Romantic period. Although her career was largely overshadowed by her younger brother Felix, she was a prolific composer of over 450 works. She was born in 1805 to a wealthy Jewish family in Hamburg. Her father Abraham was a successful banker, and her mother Lea was an accomplished pianist who learned from Johann Kirnberger, a former student of J.S. Bach. Mendelssohn and her three younger siblings all received their initial musical training from their mother. In 1811 the family moved to Berlin to escape the invading F...