Clara Schumann

Hello. My name is Clara, and I want to tell you my story. I was born in a town called Leipzig, in Germany, on September 13th, 1819. My father, Friedrich Wieck, was a famous piano teacher, and he started teaching me how to play when I was just a little girl. Music was everything to me. I practiced for hours and hours every single day because I loved the beautiful sounds the piano could make. All that hard work paid off. When I was only nine years old, in 1828, I played my very first big concert. It was so exciting to stand on a stage and play for a huge audience. I knew right then that music was what I wanted to do for my whole life. It felt like my heart was singing along with the notes from the piano.

Besides playing the piano, I also loved to create my own songs. Composing was like telling a secret story with music instead of words. When I was a girl, a young man named Robert Schumann came to our home to study piano with my father. We quickly became wonderful friends because we both loved music so much. We enjoyed playing duets and sharing the songs we wrote. Soon, our friendship grew into love. My father did not want us to get married, which made us very sad. But we knew we belonged together. We were finally married in the year 1840, and it was the happiest day. We filled our home with beautiful music and the happy laughter of our eight children.

I became a very famous concert pianist, known all across Europe. It was an amazing adventure. I traveled by train and by carriage to play my music for kings, queens, and big crowds of people in grand concert halls. I especially loved playing the beautiful music my husband Robert wrote. I wanted everyone in the world to hear how wonderful his songs were. But then, a very sad thing happened. My dear Robert passed away in 1856. My heart was broken, but I knew I had to be very brave for our children. I kept performing and teaching music to take care of my family. It was not always easy, but the music gave me strength and helped me keep going, one note at a time.

My career as a pianist and composer lasted for over 60 years. I lived to be 76 years old. Today, people remember me as one of the very first famous female pianists and composers in the world. I showed everyone that women could be powerful and brilliant musicians, just like men. I am so happy that my songs are still played all over the world for people to enjoy, filling their lives with music just as it filled mine.