Meet the awesome composer ...
... whose music was published under HER BROTHER’S name Fanny and Felix Mendelssohn. Picture: Getty By Elizabeth Davis, ClassicFM London 0 Fanny Mendelssohn was a truly great composer, but she faced an almost overwhelming set of obstacles to getting her work published. Fanny was born in Hamburg on 14 November 1805 and learned to play the piano when she was a child. She was such an impressive young musician that the composer Carl Friedrich Zelter said of her: “This child really is something special”. But Fanny wasn’t just a brilliant performer, she was also a composer – like her younger brother Felix . You may have noticed that the history of classical music is dominated by male composers – and Fanny’s father was a firm believer that composition wasn’t a career for women. He said to his daughter: “Music will perhaps become [Felix’s] profession, while for you it can and must be only an ornament.” D iscove...