Emilie Mayer

Born on 14 May, 1812 in Friedland (Mecklenburg) Germany, Emilie Mayer firmly established herself as a professional composer, enjoying both critical and popular success in the mid 19th century. She produced some eight symphonies for full orchestra and at least fifteen concert overtures, plus a large number of string quintets and quartets, piano quartets and trios, Lieder, and violin sonatas.

Composer Carl Lowe is quoted as saying that “such a God-given talent as hers had not been bestowed upon any other person that he knew.” And Hermann Zopff, founder of the Berlin Opera Academy, acknowledged the Violin Sonata in A minor as a “Magnificent example of the genre, such as we would hardly have expected from a woman.”

At the age of 72, Emilie Mayer died suddenly on 10 April, 1883, after a brief illness. In spite of all her successes and accolades, the composer fell into obscurity for over 100 years.

Previously unrecorded, three of Emilie Mayer’s sonatas for violin and piano are presented on the Feminae release Mayer: Violin Sonatas: the Sonata for Violin and Piano in A minor, op. 18, the Sonata for Violin and Piano in E minor, op. 19, and the unpublished Sonata for Violin and Piano in E-flat Major.