Teresa Carrêno
Pianist
1853 – 1917 A.D.

Teresa Carrêno. a celebrated pianist, born in Caracas, Venezuela. Her father was a talented amateur musician, and from him the daughter received her first instruction as a small child. She studied in New York with Louis Gottschalk, and later in Paris with George Mathias.

She began her career as an opera singer, conducted an opera troupe herself once in Venezuela, and composed a string quartet, works for piano, and the Venezuelan national anthem. But her great reputation was made as a pianist, and on two continents where was hailed as the greatest of woman artists at her instrument. She continue to tour in concert and to play in the larger cities until a few months before her death.

Her most famous pupil was the American composer Edward MacDowell. The chief traits of her playing were intellectual grasp and breadth of interpretation, brilliancy, dash, and masculine vigor for which she gained the appelation [sic] of “the Valkyr of the piano.”

Mme. Carrêno was four times married and thrice divorced. Her first husband was Emile Sauret, violinist, her second Giovanni Tagliapietra, a singer, her third Eugen d’Albert, pianist and composer, and her fourth Arturo Tagliapietra, younger brother of her second husband. Although she considered herself an American she resided principally abroad.

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Reference: Famous Women; An Outline of Feminine Achievement Through the Ages With Life Stories of Five Hundred Noted Women By Joseph Adelman. Copyright, 1926 by Ellis M. Lonow Company.