Ingeborg von Schellendorf

Ingeborg Maria Wilhelmina Bronsart von Schellendorf (née Starck) was a German pianist and composer born to Swedish parents living in Russia. She received her early musical education in Saint Petersburg under the pianists Nikolai Martynov, Adolf von Henselt, and Konstantin Decker. In 1858, she traveled to Weimar to study under the guidance of Franz Liszt. In 1861, she married a fellow student of Liszt, Hans Bronsart von Schellendorf.

Although she settled in Germany, she continued to perform in Russia occasionally, receiving praise from figures such as Vladimir Odoevsky, who considered her one of Europe's premier female artists. After her husband was appointed General Director of the Royal Theatres in Hanover in 1867, her touring activities diminished, and she focused increasingly on composition. She hosted a prominent salon frequented by cultural figures such as Joseph Joachim, Hans von Bülow, Friedrich Kaulbach, and Friedrich Bodenstedt.

Her compositional output includes significant operatic works such as 'Die Göttin von Sais oder Linas und Liane' (1867), 'Jery und Bätely' (1873), and 'Hiarne' (1890), the latter of which was polemically directed against Wagner's 'Ring of the Nibelung'. She also composed the 'Kaiser-Wilhelm-Marsch', which opened the women's program at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago.

Bronsart von Schellendorf also wrote a piano concerto (1863) and numerous vocal cycles. Her lieder included settings of poetry by Heinrich Heine, August von Platen, and Friedrich Bodenstedt, as well as a cycle based on the verses of Mikhail Lermontov, which was published in Saint Petersburg in 1869.

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