See also
Name: | Mathilde Verne |
Sex: | Female |
Father: | John Evangelist Wurm (c. 1828-1892) |
Mother: | Marie Sophie Niggl (c. 1833-1882) |
Birth | 25 May 1865 | 12 Portland Street, Southampton |
Birth fact | 1865 (age 0) | 1865 Jun Q, Southampton, 2c/34 (registered as Matilda Sophia Wurm) |
Census | 1881 (age 15-16) | Living with mother in Penge |
Census | 1901 (age 35-36) | Piano teacher, 19 St Loo Avenue, Chelsea (unmarried) |
Census | 1911 (age 45-46) | Pianist & piano teacher, 194 Cromwell Road, London S W |
Residence | 1920 (age 54-55) | 12 Montagu Street, Paddington (Elect. Reg.) |
Death | 4 Jun 1936 (age 71) | Savoy Hotel, Strand, London |
A pianist and piano teacher, Mathilde Verne has her main claim to fame in her discovery of the seven year-old piano prodigy Solomon (Cutner), whom she managed for five years from 1910 to 1915.
After studying for four years under Clara Schumann in Frankfurt, she became established as a concert pianist in 1887, as well as launching a career as music teacher. She taught briefly at the Royal College of Music, and later made regular appearances under Henry Wood at the Queen's Hall Promenade Concerts from 1903 to 1907, and the Sunday afternoon concerts from 1908 to 1912.
Along with most of her other sisters, Mathilde changed her name to Verne in 1893 after the death of their father John Wurm.
In 1909 the Mathilde Verne School of Pianoforte Playing opened at 194 Cromwell Road, South Kensington, and quickly gained attention with its student performances. Among numerous notable students, she taught Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, later Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother.
The novel "Madame Sousatzka" by Bernice Rubens (1962), made into a film in 1988 is partly based on Mathilde Verne's career.
Source: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
For more information on the Verne sisters and John Vallier, see the family website: http://www.keyboardgiants.com/
VERNE Mathilde Sophie of 2 Mansfield Street Portland Place Middlesex spinster died 4 June 1936 at Savoy Hotel Strand Middlesex; Administration London 13 July to Alice Barbara Bredt (wife of William Bredt). Effects £262 19s. 5d.