Marcella Sembrich |

Marcella Sembrich

Daughter of violinist K. Kochansky. Sembrich’s musical talent manifested itself at an early age (she studied piano for 4 years, violin for 6 years). In 1869-1873 she studied piano at the Lviv Conservatory with V. Shtengel, her future husband. In 1875-77 she improved at the conservatory in Vienna in the piano class of Y. Epshtein. In 1874, on the advice of F. Liszt, she began to study singing, first with V. Rokitansky, then with J. B. Lamperti in Milan. In 1877 she made her debut in Athens as Elvira (Bellini’s Puritani), then studied the German repertoire in Vienna with R. Levy. In 1878 she performed in Dresden, in 1880-85 in London. In 1884 she took lessons from F. Lamperti (senior). In 1898-1909 she sang at the Metropolitan Opera, toured Germany, Spain, Russia (for the first time in 1880), Sweden, the USA, France, etc. After leaving the stage, from 1924 she taught at the Curtis Music Institute in Philadelphia and at the Juilliard School in New York. Sembrich enjoyed worldwide fame, her voice was distinguished by a large range (up to 1st – F 3rd octave), rare expressiveness, performance – a subtle sense of style.