Agathe Backer-Grøndahl

Agathe Backer-Grøndahl (1 December 1847 – 4 June 1907) was a Norwegian pianist and composer. She was born in Holmestrand, but in 1857 moved with her family to Oslo, where she studied with Otto Winther-Hjelm, Halfdan Kjerulf and Ludvig Mathias Lindeman. From 1865 she studied in Berlin, where she won fame with her interpretation of Beethoven's Fifth Piano Concerto. Later she studied with Hans von Bülow in Florence, and Franz Liszt in Weimar in 1873. She married the conductor Olams Andreas Grøndahl in 1875, and was generally known thereafter as Agathe Backer-Grøndahl.

Agathe Backer-Grøndahl (1 December 1847 – 4 June 1907) was a Norwegian pianist and composer. She was born in Holmestrand, but in 1857 moved with her family to Oslo, where she studied with Otto Winther-Hjelm, Halfdan Kjerulf and Ludvig Mathias Lindeman. From 1865 she studied in Berlin, where she won fame with her interpretation of Beethoven's Fifth Piano Concerto. Later she studied with Hans von Bülow in Florence, and Franz Liszt in Weimar in 1873. She married the conductor Olams Andreas Grøndahl in 1875, and was generally known thereafter as Agathe Backer-Grøndahl. Backer-Grøndahl composed in total some 400 pieces spanning seventy opus numbers, and was a prominent character on the Norwegian musical scene; she was a close friend of Edvard Grieg.

Later in life she became almost completely deaf, and was forced to give up her career as a performing artist. Agathe Backer-Grøndahl died in Oslo at the age of 59. She is chiefly remembered for her piano pieces and songs. Her sister was Harriet Backer, the famous painter. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License and may also be available under the GNU FDL..