(12/22/1853 – 6/2/1917)
Pianist and composer, also conducted and had a short stint as an opera singer. Carreño began composing elegant piano pieces at age 6 and was an established concert pianist and composer prior age 20. Her grandfather, Caetano Carreño, was a celebrated pianist and her father, Manuel Antonio, was an amateur pianist who served as her manager for the first 10 years of her career. Teresa Carreño’s first musical education came directly from her father, and was later supplemented by a wide array of established American and European pianists, the first being native to New Orleans, Louis Moreau Gottschalk, with whom Carreño had a series of lessons with in New York City at age 8. A year later, in 1862, Carreño performed publically for the first time at New York’s Irving Hall. She then embarked on a U.S. tour, with stops in Boston and at the White House to perform for President Lincoln.
Carreño’s musical career took off fast and never slowed down. She toured the world, with a focus in Europe, but made stops in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Cuba, the U.S., and her native Venezuela. She was married four times and had five surviving children. For close to 2 years, 1885-1886, Carreño lived in Venezuela and contributed to the classical musical scene through compositions, management of an opera company (where she performed briefly as a singer), and played a role in the foundation of a conservatory of music. However, she spent the bulk of her life in Germany, 1889-1916. In Berlin, Carreño taught music, performed with the Berlin Philharmonic, and explored Romantic concertos. During this period, she used Germany as a base while she toured Europe. Her life was highly dominated by touring, and she composed the majority of her work during her younger years, particularly in Paris between the late 1860s and early 1870s. She did, however, experiment with various other mediums throughout her life, such as opera and her short-lived interest with string quartet compositions.
Teresa Carreño died on June 6, 1917 in New York City, and her ashes were formally laid to rest in Venezuela in 1938. In 1919, Carreño’s book, “Possibilities of Tone and Color by Artistic Use of Pedals,” was published. Teresa Carreño is widely celebrated as a child prodigy and admired for her contributions to the classical piano repertoire of her time period.
Discography:
Various artists continue to perform and record Teresa Carreño, however the only available recording done by the artist herself is the following:
Teresa Carreño - Pianist
Recordings for M. Welte & Soehne / 1905
References:
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