Teresa Milanollo @RISM

Thursday, August 28, 2014

Today is the birthday of Italian violinist and composer Teresa Milanollo (1827-1904).

As a nine-year-old, Teresa fascinated audiences with her violin playing. Together with her sister Maria, who was five years younger, they were a successful violin prodigy duo. Tragically, their celebrated performances came to an end in 1848 when Maria died of tuberculosis at the age of sixteen. By this time, Teresa was 21 years old and had outgrown the wunderkind stage. Against all societal conventions, Teresa continued her career as a virtuoso and traveled in France and the German-speaking countries. At the end of the 1850s, she withdrew from concert life and married a French general. Teresa Milanollo died at the age of 77 in Paris. The compositions that were written for her concert performances unfortunately have not been played in a long time.

Teresa Milanollo can be found in the RISM online catalog in a variety of functions: as a composer, performer, dedicatee, or simply named in the title.

Below is the “Coldstream March,” written by Johann Valentin Hamm for the Milanollo sisters. It was later arranged for military band and is an official regimental march of the Coldstream Guards in the British Army.

Photo credit: Bibliothèque nationale de France

Category: Musical anniversaries