Emma Ritter-Bondy

Emma Ritter-Bondy , also known as Emma Ritter , (born January 9, 1838 in Graz , † June 23, 1894 in Glasgow ) was a Scottish pianist and music teacher of Austrian origin. In 1892 she was appointed first professor of piano at the Glasgow Athenaeum School of Music , now the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland . This made her the first female music professor, indeed the first female professor, at a university institution in the whole of Great Britain . She became the first woman in Great Britain to become a professor almost 16 years before Edith Morley . Morley was appointed professor of English literature at University College Reading in 1908 . She was classically considered the first female professor in Great Britain.

life and work

Emma Ritter was born Emma Maria Bondy in Graz in 1838 . In the mid-1850s she studied piano in the class of Josef Fischhof at the Vienna Conservatory . In 1862 she married the artist Franz Ritter . The couple moved to Koblenz around 1868 after getting to know the city on a concert tour. Here she also worked as a music teacher at the Royal High School in Coblenz , today's Görres High School . The couple had two children, daughter Ida (born March 14, 1874) and son Camillo (born December 3, 1875). The latter later became a noted violinist and music professor. Her husband died in January 1879.

Emma Ritter decided in 1881 for the family to leave Koblenz and build a new home in Glasgow . Most likely Emma Ritter chose this city because it was actively recruited by the Glasgow Athenaeum School of Music , which was looking for talented musicians across Europe at the time. In 1892 she was appointed professor for piano at this conservatory. In the same year she and her two children became British citizens.

Overall, relatively little is known about Emma Ritter as a professor due to the thin files at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland . Irina Vaterl gives further primary sources on Emma Ritter-Bondy in her document at HFMT Hamburg . The first scientific work on the person Emma Ritter-Bondy is the work by Vaterl listed under literature. According to the referenced BBC document, Emma Ritter gave a public concert together with her highly musical children in the Athenaeum Hall in Glasgow in 1893 . Emma Ritter-Bondy had already given public concerts during her time in Graz and Vienna, for example on February 27, 1867 in Rothenburg ob der Tauber .

Emma Ritter died in Glasgow on June 23, 1894. In her will she decreed that her two children should receive the best possible musical education. This should preferably be done in Berlin or London. The two children actually completed their education in Berlin (Camillo) and London (Ida). "While daughter Ida made a name for herself as a piano accompanist, son Camillo became known as a violin virtuoso and teacher."

swell

• Irina Vaterl: Emma Ritter-Bondy. HFMT Hamburg, October 23, 2018, archived from the original on March 18, 2020 ; accessed on March 17, 2020 . 
• The first female professor in the UK (Emma Ritter-Bondy). BBC, March 8, 2017; archived from the original on November 2, 2017 ; accessed on March 17, 2020 (English). 

literature

• Irina Vaterl: From Graz to Glasgow. The pianist Emma Ritter-Bondy (1838–1894) . Graz 2017 (Scientific master's thesis at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k} Irina Vaterl: Emma Ritter-Bondy. In: HFMT Hamburg.
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r} BBC: The first female professor in the UK (Emma Ritter-Bondy).
3. ↑ Official and advertising paper for the city and the Royal. District Office Rothenburg (1867): Concert by Mrs. Emma Ritter-Bondy on February 27, 1867 in the Hirsch zu Rothenburg. Bavarian State Library, Munich, February 1867, accessed on March 19, 2020 .