Edvard Grieg and Agathe Backer Grøndahl
ANNA HERSEY
University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh
Agathe Backer Grøndahl, often called “The Clara Schumann of Norway,” was born in 1847 into an affluent family in Holmestrand. She and her three sisters received training in both music and art, and at age 10 she moved with the rest of her family to Oslo (at the time Christiania) so that she could receive more advanced training in piano and composition.
It is unknown how the 20-year-old pianist Agathe Backer came to Edvard Grieg’s a
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Anna Hersey
Soprano Anna Hersey was a Fulbright Scholar at the Kungliga Musikhögskolan and conducted research at Det Kongelige Danske Musikkonservatorium, thanks to a post-doctoral fellowship from the American Scandinavian Foundation. Her book Scandinavian Song: A Guide to Swedish, Norwegian, and Danish Diction and Repertoire was published by Rowman & Littlefield. Dr. Hersey holds master’s degrees in performance and musicology from the University of Minnesota and earned a doctorate from the University of Miami. She is associate professor of voice at University of Wisconsin Oshkosh.
