María Teresa Gertrudis de Jesús Carreño García
Photograph in Berlin, c. 1916
Teresa Carreño (1853-1917) was a Venezuelan pianist, composer, impresario, opera singer, and teacher who was among the first female pianists to tour the U.S. Known as the “Valkyrie of the piano,” her extraordinary performance career began when she made her debut in New York at the age of eight. The concert included works by Hummel, Thalberg, Döhler, and Gottshcalk. Carreño was mentored by L.M. Gottschalk, and after the success of her first public performance, she toured in major U.S. and Cuban cities. She received an invitation from President Abraham Lincoln to perform at the White House in 1863, where she performed works by Gottschalk and Septimus Winner.
Her family moved to Europe in 1866, and she performed throughout England, Spain, and Holland before returning to the U.S. in the 1870s for additional concert tours. In the early twentieth century, Carreño recorded over forty compositions for the reproducing piano that were released by Welte-Mignon. Additionally, she continued to tour extensively as a pianist in the U.S., Australia, North and South Africa, Europe, the Americas, and the Caribbean until 1916.
Carreño was a role model for generations of female professional performers and composers, and she championed performances of works by American composers. She was sought after as a teacher in many of the cities she toured, and students often traveled to her summer residence to study for extended periods of time. Her students included Marta Milinowski, Fanny Nicodé née Kinnel, Helen Wright, and Julia Bigansky-Kasanoff.
Carreño also studied voice with Rossini, Signor Fontana, and Herminia Rudersdorff, which prepared her to perform the role of the Queen in a performance of Meyerbeer’s Les Huuenots and as Zerlina in a performance of Mozart’s Don Giovanni. In the 1880s, she established an opera company in Caracas that was ultimately unsuccessful due to political unrest.
Nearly all of Carreño’s approximately 80 compositions are for solo piano and were performed by her in concert tours. Her compositional style in these pieces is virtuosic, and she incorporates Venezuelan rhythmic and formal elements. For example, Un Bal en Rêve utilizes the form of the merengue as an interlude. Her publishers included Heugel, Brandus & S. Dufour, Duff & Stewart, Antonio Romero, G. Schirmer, Edward Schuberth, Oliver Ditson & Co., Theodore Presser, The John Church Company, Fr. Kistner & C.F.W. Siegel, and Allan & Co. Carreño’s latest works include the String Quartet in B Minor, the Serenade for string orchestra, and two works for chorus. Amy Beach dedicated her Piano Concerto in C-sharp Minor to Carreño, and likewise, Edward MacDowell’s Piano Concerto No. 2 is also dedicated to her.
Resources
Public Domain Scores
Finding Aid for Archival Papers
Centro Documental Teatro Teresa Carreño
Documentary Film– Teresita y El Piano
NY Times Obituary
Sources
Albuquerque, Anne E. Teresa Carreño: Pianist, Teacher, and Composer. DMA thesis, University of Cincinnati, 1988.
Kijas, Anna E. “Teresa Carreño: ‘Such Gifts Are of God, and Ought Not to Be Prostituted for Mere Gain.'” In Musical Prodigies: Interpretations from Psychology, Music Education, Musicology and Ethnomusicology, ed. by Gary McPherson, 621-37. New York: Oxford University Press, 2016.
Kijas, Anna E. The Life and Music of Teresa Carreño (1853-1917): A Guide to Research. Middleton: A.R. Editions, 2019.
Pita, Laura. “Carreño, (María) Teresa.” Grove Music Online. 2015.
Works Featured on Expanding the Music Theory Canon
Partie! from Deux Élégies, Op. 18
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Page: Scales
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Pages: Polyrhythms, Borrowed Divisions
Un Rêve en Mer from Trois Morceaux de Salon, Op. 28
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Page: Scales
La Fausse Note
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Page: Triads
Fantaisie from Reminiscensces de Norma, Op. 14
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Page: Common-Tone Diminished 7th
Le Ruisseau, Op. 29
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Page: Common-Tone Diminished 7th
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Page: Modulation
Venise from Deux Esquisses Italiennes
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Page: Modal Mixture
Une Revue à Prague from Trois Morceaux de Salon, Op. 27
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Page: Modulation
Un Bal en Rêve, Op. 26
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Page: Modulation
Venise from Deux Esquisses Italiennes
Full Score
Page: Ternary
Plainte! from Deux Élégies, Op. 17
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Page: Cadences
Le Printemps from Trois Morceaux de Salon, Op. 25
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Page: Cadences
Partie! from Deux Élégies, Op. 18
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Pages: V, V7+Inversions, Appoggiatura
Un Bal en Reve
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Pages: Secondary Function, Borrowed Divisions
La Fausse Note
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Page: Sequences
Plainte! from Deux Élégies, Op. 17
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Page: Neapolitan
Andante from String Quartet in B Minor
Full Score
Page: Ternary