Sara Levy (née Itzig)

[7] Sara Levy is described by her contemporaries, including Louis Pierre Edouard Bignon, Napoleon's ambassador, as a highly educated woman with strong character and an extremely charitable spirit.

[2] She herself sat at the grand piano and, accompanied by an orchestra, played only works by the Bach family.

Sara Levy insisted that Zelter become the teacher of Abraham's older children, Fanny and Felix.

In her will she also bequeathed her extensive and valuable music library, consisting of manuscripts and first editions, to the Singakademie.

In 1854, immediately after her death, these treasures were sold to the Berlin State Library for a knockdown price due to financial difficulties.

[9] As well as donating most of her collection to the Singakademie, she gave Felix Mendelssohn a copy of Haydn’s Heiligmesse.