Word: kochanska
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...operatic farewell at 50 when her voice was still young, clear, phenomenally high. But at 50 Sembrich had already lived a long life as a public performer. Her Polish father, one of a tanner's 14 children, left a military band to marry. Sembrich, christened Praxede Marcelline Kochanska, was plopped up on a piano bench at the age of four. At six she was studying the violin. At twelve she played at local dances in the family quartet. She was the pianist, her brother the first violinist, her mother the second, her father the cellist. When she nodded...
Because a singer heard her and liked her playing, Marcelline Kochanska was admitted to the Lemberg Conservatory where her teacher was a Wilhelm Stengel whom she married in 1877. When she was in her teens Stengel took her to see Franz Liszt who said: "Kleine, you have three pairs of wings on which to fly to fame. You can become a great pianist, a great violinist or a great singer." Sembrich chose to sing and took her mother's maiden name. Her début was in Athens...
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