Dora Pejačević

[3] Pejačević is noted for her vocal compositions, piano miniatures, and string quartets,[2] which were heavily influenced by the expressionist and modernist trends of the time.

Her father, Teodor Pejačević of Virovitica, was a Croatian count with mostly magyar ancestors, and her mother, Elisabeth Josepha Vay de Vaya, a Hungarian noblewoman who was an educated singer and pianist.

However, it's true that I don't align with members of my social class; in everything, I seek substance and value, and neither norms nor traditions nor lineage can blind me with sand in my eyes..."[4]She developed her own intellectual abilities under the influences of Wilde, Ibsen, Dostoevsky, Mann, Schopenhauer, Rilke, Kierkegaard, Kraus, and Nietzsche, among others.

[5] In one of her diaries, she commented on 470 books she had read in the period from 1902 to 1921, which covered fields of literature, philosophy, music, religion, history, and natural sciences.

[2] Her son, Theodor von Lumbe (1923-2012) survived and in July 2011 in Vienna, he presented the 1917 portrait of his mother - seated with violin - by Maksimilijan Vanka to the Gallery of Modern Art in Zagreb, Croatia.

A quote from her letter also speaks of her progressive worldviews and beliefs:"May God grant that our child (if I were to leave it to you) brings you joy - that they become a truly open, great human being; pave their paths, but never prevent them from experiencing the suffering that enriches the soul, for only then will they become a person.

For example, the Croatian Music Information Centre has published some of her scores, including three of her orchestral works (Piano Concerto, Symphony, and Phantasie Concertante).

In 2008, the center also published a bilingual monograph (in English and Croatian), written by the Pejačević scholar Koraljka Kos, accompanied by a first all-Pejačević CD of piano and chamber music.

The 2023 BBC Proms in London features a selection of her music, including the Symphony in F-sharp minor[7][8] Her life is the subject of the fictionalized Croatian biographical film Countess Dora (1993), directed by Zvonimir Berković and starring Alma Prica and Rade Šerbedžija.