In honour of International Women’s Day, which we celebrated a couple of weeks ago, I’m going to trace the emergence of female pianists and pedagogues throughout the Nineteenth and Twentieth centuries. I’ve always been fascinated by gender topics such as this, particularly the gradual change from amateur to professional status of piano teachers.

An abundance of female piano teachers existed even in the early Nineteenth century, mainly due to the art of piano playing being viewed as a prerequisite for well-educated young ladies during the Nineteenth and early Twentieth century. Many well-bred young women taught the piano before getting married and whilst most were amateur teachers, a trend for piano teaching began amongst women which still continues to this day.

Concert pianists and piano professors at conservatoires or universities have not been so successfully represented. During the Nineteenth century, there were a handful of British female concert pianists and a few taught as well as performed.  Increasingly, however, a growing number of women became accomplished concert pianists and held teaching posts at conservatoires; they were able to sustain careers as pianists and pedagogues which would simply not have been possible 100 years earlier.

I will kick-off today with a brief resume of the first important British female pianist and teacher, Lucy Anderson. Anderson (1797-1878) was the most eminent female English pianist of the early Victorian era. Born in Bath, her parents were both musicians; her father John was described as a ‘Professor of Music’ and her sister Fanny was also a piano teacher. Lucy Philpot married violinist George Anderson in 1820.

Lucy studied with William Crotch and first achieved recognition as a pianist in her home town. She quickly gained a reputation and was the first woman pianist to perform for the Royal Philharmonic Society. Anderson was also the first pianist to play Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto or Piano Concerto No. 5 in E flat major Op. 73 with the Society and then went on to champion all Beethoven’s Concertos, playing them more often that any other English pianist. She became an honorary member of the Royal Philharmonic Society in 1869.

Anderson’s playing has been described as ‘formidable’ and she has the somewhat salacious reputation of being ‘a manipulator of wide patronage’. Her husband was appointed Master of the Queen’s Music in 1848, and having taught the piano to Queen Victoria and her children, Anderson was appointed pianist to both Queen Adelaide and Queen Victoria, proving she moved in illustrious circles. Amongst her many high-bred students was the Victorian pianist, Arabella Goddard, who became the most important British female pianist of the late Nineteenth century.

So Lucy, it seems, paved the way for British female pianists and she set the standard for which many future generations of women would follow.

Main Source: Wikipedia

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