Margarete Schweikert

Margarete Schweikert (16 February 1887 – 13 March 1957) was a German composer, music critic, violinist, and pianist who composed chamber music, approximately 160 songs, and a children's operetta, The Frog King.

Biography Schweikert was born in Karlsruhe, the only child of Friedrich and Luise Petry Schweikert. Her father sold insurance and was also a music critic for Neue Stuttgarter Musikzeitung and Karlsruher Blätter. He gave Schweikert her first violin lessons. Her mother played piano and helped her family manage the Jakob Petry Jewelry Store.

Schweikert attended the Munz Conservatory and the Baden Conservatory (today the Baden University of Music). She changed her name to Voigt-Schweikert, but continued to publish her music and writing under the name "Margarete Schweikert."

Works Schweikert wrote music criticism for the Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung, Karlsruher Tagblatt, Münchner Zeitung, and Neue Musikzeitung.

In 1950 Schweikert became an expert advisor for music at the Karlsruhe Gemeinschaft Deutscher und Oesterreichischer Künstlerinnenvereine (GEDOK; Association of German and Austrian Female Artists). From 1955 until her death in 1957 she served as the director of GEDOK.

Schweikert's papers are archived in the Badische Landesbibliothek Karlsruhe. They include piano and organ pieces, 160 songs, and chamber music, as well as her handwritten memoir. Antes Edition BM14.9001 German Piano Music Antes Edition BM31.9207 Chamber Music TYXart TXA16085 Margaret Schweikert Vocal Music TYXart TXA16086 Margaret Schweikert Vocal Music Bernhard Berchtold (tenor), Jeannette La Deur (piano) Schweikert: Im bitteren Menschenland (2018) (TYXart TXA16086) CD Kitty Whately (mezzo-soprano), Joseph Middleton (piano) Befreit: A Soul Surrendered (2023) (Chandos CHAN20177) CD