Kate Fanny Loder, later Lady Thompson, (21 August 1825 – 30 August 1904) was an English composer and pianist.

Biography

Kate Loder was born on 21 August 1825, on Bathwick Street,

Bathwick Bathwick is an electoral ward in the City of Bath, England, on the opposite bank of the River Avon to the historic city centre. Bathwick was part of the hundred of Bath Forum. The district became part of the Bath urban area with the 18th centu ...

, within

Bath, Somerset Bath () is a city in the Bath and North East Somerset unitary area in the county of Somerset, England, known for and named after its Roman-built baths. At the 2021 Census, the population was 101,557. Bath is in the valley of the River Avon, ...

where the Loder family were prominent musicians. Her father was the

flautist The flute is a family of classical music instrument in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, meaning they make sound by vibrating a column of air. However, unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is a reedless ...

George Loder George Loder (1816 – 15 July 1868) was an English conductor, and composer of orchestral music, operas and songs. During his career he lived in England, America and Australia; he conducted the first U.S. performance of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 ...

. According to '' Grove'', her mother was a piano teacher born Fanny Philpot, who was the sister of the pianist

Lucy Anderson Lucy Anderson (bap. 18 February 1795 – 24 December 1878) was the most eminent of the English pianists of the early Victorian era. She is mentioned in the same breath as English pianists of the calibre of William Sterndale Bennett. She ...

. However, genealogical research suggests Kate's mother was Frances Elizabeth Mary Kirkham (1802–50), daughter of Thomas Bulman Kirkham (1778–1845) and Marianne Beville Moore (c.1781 – 1810). Frances Kirkham's step-mother was Jane Harriett Philpot (1802–63), second wife to Thomas Bulman Kirkham and sister of the Lucy Philpot who married the violinist

George Frederick Anderson George Frederick Anderson (14 December 1793– 14 December 1876) was a British violinist and Master of the Queen's Music. Anderson was born in London in 1793. He was engaged as violinist in a variety of orchestras. In July 1820 he married t ...

, becoming Lucy Anderson. Kate was also the sister of conductor and composer

, and the cousin of composer Edward Loder. Kater Loder studied at the

Royal Academy of Music The Royal Academy of Music (RAM) in London, England, is the oldest conservatoire in the UK, founded in 1822 by John Fane and Nicolas-Charles Bochsa. It received its royal charter in 1830 from King George IV with the support of the first Duke of ...

in London. Her performance of Mendelssohn's G minor piano concerto at the Hanover-square Rooms on 27 May 1843, when she was aged 17, may have been her public debut. The following year, in 1844, aged just 18, she became the first female professor of harmony at the Royal Academy. On 16 December 1851 at St Marylebone Church, Westminster, she married Sir Henry Thompson and soon afterwards, at her husband's insistence, gave up her public performing career. She remained active in music, continuing to compose, and taught pupils including

Sarah Louisa Kilpack Sarah Louisa Kilpack (1839–1909) or Sarah Louise Kilpack was a British artist and musician who is best known for her portrayals of stormy coastal scenes. Life Kilpack was born in Covent Garden in London. Her father, Thomas, was the proprieto ...

who nowadays is better known as an artist. On 10 July 1871, the first British performance of the '' German Requiem'' of

Johannes Brahms Johannes Brahms (; 7 May 1833 – 3 April 1897) was a German composer, pianist, and conductor of the mid- Romantic period. Born in Hamburg into a Lutheran family, he spent much of his professional life in Vienna. He is sometimes grouped wit ...

took place privately at Loder's home, 35

Wimpole Street Wimpole Street is a street in Marylebone, central London. Located in the City of Westminster, it is associated with private medical practice and medical associations. No. 1 Wimpole Street is an example of Edwardian baroque architecture, compl ...

, London. It was performed using a version for

piano duet According to the ''Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'', there are two kinds of piano duet: "those for two players at one instrument, and those in which each of the two pianists has an instrument to themself." In American usage the former is ...

accompaniment which became known as the "London Version" (german: Londoner Fassnung, links=no) of the Requiem. Brahms based it on an 1866 arrangement for piano of his first, six-movement version of the Requiem. The pianists were Kate Loder and Cipriani Potter (who was then 79 years old; he died that September). She died on 30 August 1904 at Headley Rectory,

Headley, Surrey Headley is a village and civil parish in the North Downs in Surrey, England. The nearest settlements are, to the west, Mickleham and Leatherhead; to the north, Ashtead and Langley Vale; to the east, Walton-on-the-Hill; and to the south, Box Hi ...

Works

Selected works include:

Chamber

*String quartet in G minor (1846) *Sonata for violin and piano (1847) *String quartet in E minor (1847) *Piano trio (1886)

Opera

*''L'elisir d'amore'' (1855)

Orchestral

*Overture (1844)

Organ

*Six Easy Voluntaries. Set 1. (London: Novello, 1889) *Six Easy Voluntaries. Set 2. (London: Novello, 1891) **''for the most part fresh and genial in character ��somewhat suggestive of Spohr in the numerous chromatic progressions.''Andrew Pink performs (2020
‘Voluntary in B-flat‘. Set 2/vi
in ''Exordia ad missam’ : my lockdown recordings''. Online resource, accessed 8 March 2021.

Piano

*Twelve studies (1852) *Three romances (1853) *''Pensée fugitive'' (1854) *''En Avant galop'' (1863) *Three Duets (1869) *Mazurka (1899) *Scherzo (1899)

Songs

*''My faint spirit'' (1854), text by Shelley

External links

References

Sources

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Loder, Kate 1825 births 1904 deaths 19th-century classical composers 20th-century classical composers Women classical composers English opera composers English classical composers English classical pianists English women pianists People from Bath, Somerset Musicians from Somerset Academics of the Royal Academy of Music Alumni of the Royal Academy of Music 20th-century English composers 19th-century classical pianists 19th-century English musicians Women opera composers 20th-century English women musicians 19th-century British composers Women music educators Women classical pianists 20th-century women composers 19th-century women composers Composers for pipe organ 19th-century English women 19th-century women pianists 20th-century women pianists