Fanny Mendelssohn was a German pianist and composer born as Fanny Zippora Mendelssohn on 14 November 1805 in Hamburg. She achieved professional recognition for a musical style spanning the Romantic era, receiving an education from her mother and studying piano with Marie Bigot, Ludwig Berger, and Ignaz Moscheles, and composition with Carl Friedrich Zelter. At age 13, she performed the entirety of Johann Sebastian Bach's The Well-Tempered Clavier (Book 1) from memory. Mendelssohn composed her first known work at 14 and began formal study with Zelter in 1819. Despite familial constraints from her father and brother Felix Mendelssohn that limited her public career, she composed nearly 250 lieder for soprano and piano and over 100 piano pieces. In 1829, she married Wilhelm Hensel, who encouraged her to perform and publish. Mendelssohn died on 14 May 1847. Her works received posthumous recognition through recordings including Trio For Violin, Cello And Piano In D Minor Op. 11 (1978), Lieder (1981), and Das Jahr (1987). Her discography includes the studio recordings Sonata in G minor (1997) and Piano Pieces (2016).
