Marie Soldat-Roeger (born in

Graz Graz (; sl, Gradec) is the capital city of the Austrian state of Styria and second-largest city in Austria after Vienna. As of 1 January 2021, it had a population of 331,562 (294,236 of whom had principal-residence status). In 2018, the popul ...

(

Styria Styria (german: Steiermark ; Serbo-Croatian and sl, ; hu, Stájerország) is a state (''Bundesland'') in the southeast of Austria. With an area of , Styria is the second largest state of Austria, after Lower Austria. Styria is bordered to ...

), March 25, 1863, died in Graz (Styria), September 30, 1955) was a violin

virtuoso A virtuoso (from Italian ''virtuoso'' or , "virtuous", Late Latin ''virtuosus'', Latin ''virtus'', "virtue", "excellence" or "skill") is an individual who possesses outstanding talent and technical ability in a particular art or field such as ...

active in orchestral and

chamber music Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small numb ...

in the Vienna of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. A pupil of violin master Joseph Joachim, she was born 'Marie Soldat', but in 1889 married a lawyer named Roeger. While studying with Joachim at the

Berlin Hochschule für Musik The Universität der Künste Berlin (UdK; also known in English as the Berlin University of the Arts), situated in Berlin, Germany, is the largest art school in Europe. It is a public art and design school, and one of the four research unive ...

, she won the Mendelssohn Prize in 1880. Marie Soldat-Roeger became friends with

Marie Baumayer Marie may refer to: People Name * Marie (given name) * Marie (Japanese given name) * Marie (murder victim), girl who was killed in Florida after being pushed in front of a moving vehicle in 1973 * Marie (died 1759), an enslaved Cree person in T ...

, an Austrian pianist, Baumayer was friends with

Clara Wittingstein Clara may refer to: Organizations * CLARA, Latin American academic computer network organization * Clara.Net, a European ISP * Consolidated Land and Rail Australia, a property development consortium People * Clara (given name), a feminine giv ...

(part of the important

Wittgenstein family The Wittgenstein family is a German-Austrian family that rose to prominence in 19th- and 20th-century Vienna, Austria. The family was originally Jewish and originated from the in Siegen-Wittgenstein, Germany. The Austrian branch of the Wittgens ...

) and

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 ...

. The latter introduced her to Joseph Joachim, who trained her in violin. For many years, she was the only woman to play

Brahms's Violin Concerto The Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 77, was composed by Johannes Brahms in 1878 and dedicated to his friend, the violinist Joseph Joachim. It is Brahms's only violin concerto, and, according to Joachim, one of the four great German violin ...

. In the late 1880s and early 1890s, she formed an all-female string quartet, in which she played first violin. Agnes Tschetschulin played second violin, Gabriele Roy played viola and Lucy Hebert Campbell played cello. The group toured and was managed by the Herman Wolff Agency, which also managed the Berlin Philharmonic. The group was billed as the world's first all-female professional string quartet. In 1896, she founded the celebrated, all-female Soldat-Roeger Quartet, whose viola-player was Natalie Bauer-Lechner,

Elsa Edle von Plank Elsa may refer to: ELSA (acronym) *ELSA Technology, a manufacturer of computer hardware *English Language Skills Assessment *English Longitudinal Study of Ageing *Ethical, Legal and Social Aspects research *European Law Students' Association * Eur ...

as second violinist (replacing

Ella Finger-Bailetti Ella may refer to: * Ella (name), most often a feminine given name, but also used as a surname Places United States * Ella, Kentucky, an unincorporated community * Ella, Oregon, an unincorporated community * Ella, Pennsylvania, an unincorporate ...

in 1898), and

Leontine Gärtner Leontine may refer to: ;As a given name * Leontine "Lona" Cohen (1913–1992), American spy for the Soviet Union *Leontine Cooper (1837–1903), Australian trade unionist, suffragist and campaigner for women's rights *Leontine T. Kelly (1920–2012 ...

as cellist (replacing Lucy Herbert Campbell in 1903). This quartet would perform at ''

Soirées musicales ''Soirées musicales'', (Musical Evenings), Op. 9, is a suite of five movements by Benjamin Britten, using music composed by Gioachino Rossini. The suite, first performed in 1937, derives its title from Rossini's collection of the same name, dat ...

'' presenting modern music.

References

Further reading