Elisabeth Kuyper

Elisabeth Johanna Lamina Kuyper (13 September 1877 – 26 February 1953) was a Dutch Romantic composer and conductor.

Life Elisabeth Kuyper was born in Amsterdam, the eldest of three children. At the age of twelve, she began the formal study of music at the Maatschappij tot Bevordering der Toonkunst with Antoon Averkamp, Louis Coenen, and Daniel de Lange. She began composing at an early age, including a piano sonata and a prelude and fugue, which she performed for her diploma examination in 1895, and a one-act opera that was performed in Amsterdam in 1895. She moved to Berlin in 1896 to continue her composition studies with Heinrich Barth and Leopold Carl Wolff at the Hochschule für Musik, completing her studies there in 1900.

Because of the challenges Kuyper faced during her career, she became strongly connected with the women’s liberation movement of the period. Other than possible soloist performances, professional opportunities for female musicians were extremely limited, as no major orchestras of the time employed female musicians. Kuyper took great effort to bring change this situation. In 1908 she formed a women's choir at the . In 1910 she formed and conducted the Berlin Women Musicians' Orchestra. For the convention of the International Council of Women held in The Hague in 1922, Kuyper assembled an orchestra and choir and led them in the performance of her Festival Cantata. After which, and with the encouragement of Lady Ishbel Aberdeen, Kuyper moved to London in 1923, where she founded the London Women's Symphony Orchestra. In 1924 she founded the American Women's Symphony Orchestra in New York City. In 1925 Kuyper returned to Europe and her teaching position at the Hochschule für Musik in Berlin, then retired to Switzerland. She died in the town of Muzzano, in the Lugano district of Switzerland.

Works Selected works include: Opus 1, Violin Sonata in A major Opus 8, Serenade for Orchestra, in D minor Opus 10, Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, in B minor Opus 11, Ballade for Cello and Orchestra, in G minor Opus 13, Trio for Violin, Cello and Piano, in D major Opus 17, Six Songs for Voice and Piano Serenata Ticinese in A major

Discography Kuyper, Rediscovering a Dutch Master (Feminae Records, 2014) Sonata in A Major for Violin and Piano, op. 1 Performed by: Aleksandra Maslovaric (violin), Tamara Rumiantsev (piano) Violin Concerto in B minor, op. 10 Performed by: Aleksandra Maslovaric (violin), Brno Philharmonic, Mikel Toms (conductor) Available: