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.

[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.

After returning to Norway in 1868, she debuted in Christiania with the Philharmonic Society, playing the "Emperor" Concerto under the direction of Edvard Grieg, then 26 years old.

[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.