Clara Schumann

Clara Wieck grew up in Leipzig, daughter of two pianists who made her a prodigy by design; her father drilled her, and by eleven she was touring Paris and Vienna. She married Robert Schumann in 1840 over her father's fury, bore eight children, and became the first audience for much of Robert's music and for the young Brahms, whom the couple befriended and championed. When Robert died early, she kept performing across Europe for decades, often with violinist Joseph Joachim, and from 1878 taught at the Frankfurt Konservatorium, drawing students from everywhere. She also composed - a concerto, chamber works, songs - though her performing eclipse them in memory. Germany put her face on the hundred-Mark note; her 2019 bicentenary brought the compositions back into print and onto stages.