Amanda Maier

Amanda Maier was a Swedish violinist and composer of the late 19th century who was respected by her peers but forgotten after her death. Her worklist includes a violin concerto, chamber music, songs, and works for the piano. She was born in 1853 in Landskrona, Sweden, and she became interested in music at a young age. Not much is known about her childhood, but her first musical instruction came from her father Carl Eduard, who held a musical director’s diploma from the Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm. She also studied organ with Bengt Wilhelm Hallberg, and when she was 12, she attended the Sankt Petri Schule in Copenhagen. Four years later, she enrolled at the Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm, where she studied violin with Eduard d’Aubert. She graduated in 1872, with the highest possible grades in every subject, and she was the first woman to receive the musical director’s diploma. Maier moved to Leipzig the following year, where she continued her education with Engelbert Röntgen, Carl Reinecke, and Ernst Friedrich Richter. She developed a strong friendship with the Röntgen family and was a frequent guest at their house for meals, social gatherings, and holiday celebrations. Maier also began performing with her violin teacher’s son, Julius Röntgen, and they became very close. In the late 1870s, she toured as a violinist in Sweden and Norway, and collaborated with soprano Louise Pyk and pianist Augusta Kiellander. Maier became engaged to Röntgen in 1879, and they got married in 1880. Maier ended her successful career as a touring violinist after her marriage, but she continued performing with her husband at social events, musical soirees, and at a handful of benefit concerts. It was through these private performances that she became friends with Brahms, Grieg, and many other prominent musicians. She also collaborated with Röntgen in the early 1880s on the compositions Schwedische Weisen und Tänze for violin and piano, and Zwiegespräche for piano. Shortly after the birth of their second child in 1886, Maier began to suffer from tuberculosis, but she made several near-recoveries and continued to compose. She completed her Piano Quartet in E minor in 1891, but her health deteriorated until her death in 1894. For over 100 years she was practically forgotten, which is a common occurrence with female musicians of that era. Fortunately, her music is being rediscovered, and has been featured on the albums Rendezvous: Leipzig, Unerhörte Schätze: Musik von Komponistinnen, and Violin's Life, Vol. 3: Music for the 'Lipinski' Stradivari.
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