Louise Farrenc

Louise Farrenc (née Jeanne-Louise Dumont; 31 May 1804 – 15 September 1875) was a French composer, virtuoso pianist and teacher of the Romantic period. Her compositions include three symphonies, a few choral works, numerous chamber pieces and a wide variety of piano music.

Life and career

Born Jeanne-Louise Dumont in Paris, she was the daughter of Jacques-Edme Dumont and sister to Auguste Dumont. Her father was in the fourth generation of a master craftsman dynasty employed by the French Royalty; her brother Auguste was in the fifth and final generation of this chain. Growing up, she lived in an apartment connected to the historic Sorbonne University, where many artist families were housed by the French government. She began piano studies at an early age with Cecile Soria, a former student of Muzio Clementi. When it became clear that she had the ability to become a professional pianist she was given lessons by such masters as Ignaz Moscheles and Johann Nepomuk Hummel, and, given the talent she showed as a composer, her parents decided to let her, in 1818 at the age of fifteen, study composition with Anton Reicha, a professor of counterpoint and fugue

at the Conservatoire de Paris. However, she was taught through private lessons as women were forbidden to enroll in the traditional composition classes at that time. In 1821 she married Aristide Farrenc, a flute student ten years her senior, who performed at some of the concerts regularly given at the artists' colony of the Sorbonne, where Louise's family lived. Following her marriage, Farrenc interrupted her studies to give concerts throughout France with her husband.