Amélie Nikisch
{{short description|Belgian singer, composer (1862–1938)}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Amélie Nikisch
| image = Amelie Nikisch portrait (5776006174).jpg
| alt = An autographed photograph, featuring a white woman wearing a plumed hat
| caption =
| other_names =
| birth_name = Amélie Augusta Heussner
| birth_date = 28 December 1862
| birth_place = Brussels, Belgium
| death_date = 18 January 1938
| death_place = Berlin, Germany
| occupation = Singer, composer
| years_active =
| known_for =
| notable_works =
| spouse(s) = Arthur Nikisch
| children = 4, including Mitja Nikisch
| relatives =
}}
Amélie Heussner Nikisch (28 December 1862 – 18 January 1938) was a Belgian soprano, actress, voice teacher, and composer.
Early life
Career
As a young woman, Heussner played soubrette roles in operas in Kassel and Leipzig. She taught voice lessons after she married in 1885.{{Cite journal|last=Gideon|first=Henry L.|date=February 1910|title=The Musical Trinity of Leipsic|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tfCnWX2ZUD0C&dq=Amelie+Nikisch&pg=PA86|journal=The Musician|volume=15|page=86}} While her husband, Arthur Nikisch, was conducting the Boston Symphony Orchestra from 1890 to 1893, she frequently performed with the orchestra as a soprano soloist.{{Cite web|title=Performance History Search: Amélie Nikisch|url=https://archives.bso.org/Search.aspx?searchType=Performance&Soloist=Am%C3%A9lie%20Nikisch|access-date=2021-03-31|publisher=Boston Symphony Orchestra}} "If anything, Mme. Nikisch's work as a vocalist might be characterized as too finished for the appreciation of the general public", noted an American newspaper in 1891, "free from all the tricks and devices that are too frequently resorted to for effect and applause".{{Cite news|date=1891-05-08|title=Amusements|page=4|work=The Inter Ocean|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/74826615/amusements/|access-date=2021-03-31|via=Newspapers.com}}
Nikisch wrote music and lyrics for light operas. Her compositions included the operettas Prinz Adolar und das Tausendschönchen (1907, with Ilse Friedlaender),{{Cite journal|date=January 9, 1907|title=Leipsic|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=W5xCAQAAMAAJ&dq=Amelie+Nikisch&pg=RA1-PA32|journal=Musical Courier|volume=54|page=32}} Meine Tante, deine Tante (1909),{{Cite news|last=|first=|date=1909-08-08|title=Opera by Mrs. Nikisch; Wife of Musical Conductor Composes Both Words and Music|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1909/08/08/archives/opera-by-mrs-nikisch-wife-of-musical-conductor-composes-both-words.html|access-date=2021-03-31}} Daniel in der Löwengrube (1914, with Friedlaender),{{Cite journal|date=June 1, 1913|title=Hamburg|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=R4bcnXXgdYwC&dq=Amelie+Nikisch&pg=RA1-PA405|journal=The Musical Times and Singing Class Circular|volume=54|page=405}} and Immer der Andere (1915).{{Cite journal|date=January 12, 1915|title=Operetta by Mme. Nikisch Brought Out in Leipsic|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Mkc0AQAAMAAJ&dq=Amelie+Nikisch&pg=RA5-PA14|journal=Musical America|volume=22|page=14}}
One of her voice students was American soprano Eleanor Painter Strong.{{Cite news|last=Goldenburg|first=William Smith|date=1930-03-23|title=Romance of the Stage|page=65|work=The Cincinnati Enquirer|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/74824117/romance-of-the-stagewilliam-smith/|access-date=2021-03-31|via=Newspapers.com}}
Personal life
Amélie Heussner married Hungarian conductor Arthur Nikisch (1855–1922) in 1885. They had four children; their younger son was pianist Mitja Nikisch (1899–1936).{{Cite journal|last=Smith|first=Frank Dabba|date=2007|title=Dr Ernst Leitz II of Wetzlar and the People He Helped During The Shoah: Research in Progress|jstor=41443873|journal=European Judaism: A Journal for the New Europe|volume=40|issue=1|pages=3–37|doi=10.3167/ej.2007.400102|issn=0014-3006}} Amélie Nikisch died in 1938, in Berlin, aged 75 years. Her daughter Eleanora (Nora) Schindler married a Jewish actor, and fled Nazi persecution with help from the Nikisches' musical contacts, moving to the United States in 1941.{{sfn|Smith|2007|pages=22–23, 36}}{{Cite news|last=Abell|first=Arthur M.|date=April 27, 1941|title=An Appeal for Aid for Daughter of Artur Nikisch|page=X6|work=The New York Times|id={{ProQuest| }}}}
References
{{reflist}}
{{Portal bar|Biography|Classical music}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nikisch, Amelie}}
Category:Musicians from Brussels