Bach, Emilie Maria Baroness von

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Austrian concert pianist and violinist, artist and composer born in Vienna, March 11, 1896; died in Vienna, February 26, 1978. Her parents were Robert Bonaventura Michael Wenzel von Bach and Eleonore Josepha Maria Theresia Auguste Bach. In 1897, she moved with her family to the castle, Leesdorf, in Baden, Austria. Bach's father, Robert, was an attorney, painter, and violinist. Her mother, Elenore, was both a singer and composer who had performed under the conductors Gustav Mahler and Johannes Brahms.

Maria, one of four daughters, grew up in a musical atmosphere; her sister Henriette became an accomplished cello soloist who premiered a number of Maria’s compositions. Maria began her carrer at the age of six when she attended the Grimm Piano School, Baden. Here she won five of the school’s established prizes. At the age of ten she gave her first concert. In 1910 she was sent to study the violin under Arnold Rose but returned to the piano in 1912 when she studied under Paul de Conne, a renowned piano virtuoso and teacher. At the age of 19 she went to study composition under Josef Marx in 1919 and instrumentation under the conductor Ivan Boutnikoff. She made her first impact in Vienna, with her Narrenlied in 1924. In 1962 she won the Premio Internationale para Compositores Buenos Aires, receiving a gold medal and a first class diploma for her String Quartet nº1 in 1935. She set to music the poems of Hesse, Rike, Rimbaud, Nietzsche and others. She was also a collage artist whose works were exhibited in Austria and Italy. L. Doblinger of Vienna published most of her works.

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            Works for wind band:

• Marcia Funebre (1968)