Alison Bauld was born in 1944 in Sydney. A piano student of Alexander Sverjensky at the Conservatorium of NSW, she later studied acting at the National Institute of Dramatic Art, subsequently touring in Shakespearian productions for a year before completing a Bachelor of Music degree at the University of Sydney. She came to England on […]

Amy Marcy Cheney Beach (1867-1944) Amy Marcy Cheney Beach was born in New Hampshire. Musically precocious, she sang improvised harmony parts at age two, composed at age four, and began piano studies with her mother, Clara Imogene Marcy Cheney, at age six, giving her first public recitals at seven. In 1875 the Cheney family moved […]

Margaret Bonds was an American composer and pianist. One of the first black composers and performers to gain recognition in the United States, she is best remembered today for her frequent collaborations with Langston Hughes. Bonds worked as an accompanist for dances and singers in various shows and supper clubs around Chicago; she also copied […]

Lili Boulanger was a French composer, the younger sister of the noted composer and composition teacher Nadia Boulanger. A child prodigy, Boulanger's talent was apparent even at the age of two, spotted by her parents, both of whom were musicians themselves and encouraged their daughter's musical education. (Her mother, Raissa Myshetskaya, was a Russian princess, […]

Nadia Boulanger entered the Paris Conservatoire at the age of 10 and by the time she was 16 she had won every applicable award there. Her sister Lili (1893-1918) followed in her footsteps, in fact studying with Nadia for a time, and became the first woman to win the coveted Prix de Rome for composition, […]

Francesca Caccini was the was an Italian composer, singer, lutenist, poet, and music teacher of the early Baroque era. She was the daughter of Giulio Caccini, and was probably the most famous and influential female European composer, in any genre, between Hildegard of Bingen in the 12th century and the 19th century. Her opera, La […]

Cecile Chaminade was a French composer and pianist. Born in Paris, she studied piano with her mother and was experimenting with composition from an early age. At the age of eight, she played some of her music to Bizet, who encouraged her and advised her parents to provide her with a musical education. At this […]

Rebecca Clarke was an English classical composer and violist best known for her chamber music featuring the viola. She is considered by one commentator to be one of the most important British composers in the interwar period between World War I and World War II; she has also been described as the most distinguished British […]

Isabella Colbran was a Spanish dramatic coloratura soprano, who was known in her native country as Isabel Colbrandt. It was said she was truly a mezzo-soprano with a high extension, her range was a strong G below middle C to a very agile and ringing E above high C. In addition to singing, she also […]

The mezzo-soprano (although she commonly sang soprano parts) Maria Malibran was one of the most famous opera singers of the 19th century. Malibran was known for her stormy personality and dramatic intensity, becoming a legendary figure after her death at age 28. Contemporary accounts of her voice describe its range, power and flexibility as extraordinary.