Agathe Backer Grøndahl

Agathe Ursula Backer was born in Holmestrand in 1847,[1] in a wealthy and art-loving home, as the second youngest of four sisters, all gifted in drawing and music.

In 1857, she moved with her family to Christiania, where she studied with Otto Winther-Hjelm, Halfdan Kjerulf and Ludvig Mathias Lindeman.

[1] Between 1865 and 1867 she became a pupil of Theodor Kullak and studied composition under Richard Wuerst at the Akademie der Tonkunst in Berlin,[1] where she lived together with her sister Harriet Backer.

[3] During the second half of the 1870s she built up an outstanding pianist career with a series of concerts in the Nordic countries, also playing with very great success in London and Paris.

Agathe Backer Grøndahl played a major role in the period often called the golden age of Norwegian music history.