Clara Angela Macirone

{{Short description|English pianist and composer}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}

File:Clara Angela Macirone.jpg

Clara Angela Macirone (20 January 1821 – 1914) was an English pianist and composer who published her music as C. A. Macirone. Born in London, she was the daughter of Italian musicians; her mother was also a pianist (a pupil of Charles Neate) and her father was an amateur tenor.Neate, Patricia. [https://books.google.com/books?id=L6t2DwAAQBAJ All My Darlings - A Victorian Family in Their Own Words], Troubador 2018 She began her studies at the Royal Academy of Music in 1839 under Cipriani Potter, W H Holmes, Charles Lucas and others. She later took a position teaching at the Academy.

Her first concert was given at the Hanover Square Rooms on 26 June 1846, at which the baritone Johann Pischek performed her sacred song Benedictus, a composition later praised by Mendelssohn. She was active as a performer until 1864. After that, Macirone turned to teaching and composing. Her Te Deum and Jubilate were sung at Hanover Chapel and claimed to have been the first service by a woman ever used in the Church.Brown, James Duff; Stratton, Stephen Samuel. British musical biography: a dictionary of musical artists, authors and composers, born in Britain and its colonies (1897) - but note the competing claim for anthems by Alice Mary Smith first performed in February 1864.

Macirone was a pioneer in the musical education of women as both a teacher and writer. She held teaching positions at Aske's School for Girls in Hatcham (1872-8) and at the Church of England High School for Girls, Baker Street. She contributed articles to The Girl's Own Paper[https://www.victorianvoices.net/topics/music/GOP.shtml Victorian Voices music archive: The Girl's Own Paper (1882-1902)] and The Argosy. Macirone died in London in 1914.{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IvoQQU1QL_QC&pg=PA298 |title=The Norton/Grove dictionary of women composers|first1=Julie Anne|last1=Sadie|first2=Rhian|last2=Samuel|year=1994|publisher=W. W. Norton & Company |isbn=9780393034875|accessdate=4 October 2010}}{{cite book |title=Music lovers' encyclopedia: containing a pronouncing and defining|author=Hughes, Rupert|year=1919}}