Menu Close

The 119th birthday of Fanny Hensel will be celebrated on 14.11.2024!
Born on November 14, 1805 in Hamburg, Fanny Hensel grew up as the granddaughter of the philosopher Moses Mendelssohn and eldest child of the banker Abraham Mendelssohn and his wife Lea in a well-to-do and educated Berlin family. At the age of 12, she was already playing the 24 preludes from the first part of Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier by heart for her father.
1831 was an important year in her career as a composer:
She composes three cantatas Lobgesang, Hiob and the Cantata nach Aufhören der Cholera in Berlin (oratorio based on images from the Bible). Until her death, she continued to direct the so-called “Sonntagsmusiken” as an important cultural institution in Berlin’s musical life. Among the guests are Liszt and the Schumann couple, along with many other famous musicians. Fanny founds and conducts a choir as part of the “Sonntagsmusiken” and works as a composer, conductor, pianist and organizer.