Clara Gottschalk Petersonaus romantic

Clara Gottschalk Peterson (* 1837; † 25 July 1910) was an American pianist, composer, and editor.

Life

Clara Gottschalk was born in 1837 in New Orleans, Louisiana, one of the seven children of London-born Edward Gottschalk and Aimée (née Bruslé). The Gottschalk and Bruslé families were slave owners, and the children were raised in part by a nurse named Sally, who the Bruslés had taken with them as chattel from Saint-Domingue, and from whom they heard Creole legends and lullabies. Their maternal grandmother was also from Saint-Domingue, and between the two women its music ‘was a constant and vital presence in the Gottschalks’ family circle’.

In 1847, Aimée left her husband and moved with six of the children to Paris, France, where Louis Moreau was already studying music. Aimée was ‘reputed to have believed that all the Gottschalk children would be musically gifted’, and although not all of them went on to be as acclaimed as Louis Moreau, ‘all did perform publicly and/ or compose at one time or another’. The youngest brother, Louis Gaston Gottschalk (1845–1912), was an eminent opera singer and vocal teacher. Clara and Blanche were both professional pianists, and Celestine and Augusta also performed.

In 1880, Clara Gottschalk married Dr. Robert E. Peterson in Philadelphia. In 1881, she published a collection of Louis Moreau’s travel notes and diaries, entitled Notes of a Pianist, with ‘a long biographical preface gathering many testimonials and reviews from newspapers’.

In 1902, Clara published Creole Songs from New Orleans in the Negro Dialect.

Clara Gottschalk Peterson died at her home in Asbury Park, New Jersey on 25 July 1910.
Source Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clara_Gottschalk_Peterson