King, Julie Rivé

1857-

One of the foremost piano virtuosos of America; born at Cincinnati. Her mother, Madam Caroline Rive, had been a pupil of Manuel Garcia, and a successful teacher in New York and Cincinnati, and undertook her daughter's education with such good results that when Madam Rive-King was only eight years old she played Thalberg's brilliant transcriptions of themes from Don Juan. When the family moved to New York, the young musician came under the instruction  of such teachers as Doctor William Mason, De Korbay, Pruckner and S. B. Mills. With this excellent foundation she went abroad in 1872 and studied at Leipsic under Reinecke, at Dresden under Blassmann and Rischpieter, and at Weimar with Liszt. She made her debut at Leipsic in 1874 at one of the Euterpe concerts which Reinecke conducted, and on which occasion she played Liszt's Second Rhapsodic and Beethoven's Third Concerto, and was most enthusiastically received. Called home by the sudden death of her father, she made her debut in concert during the winter of 1874-1875 at Cincinnati. This was followed by other concerts, among them one in New York at which she played Liszt's E flat concerto and Schumann's Faschingsschwank. She played at the Philharmonic concerts in Philadelphia and with the Apollo Club in Chicago, and she was everywhere greeted with great applause. She toured through the United States under the management of Frank H. King whom she afterward married. She played from a brilliant repertory which included compositions by Beethoven, Chopin, Liszt, Schumann and Tausig. She performed in more than two hundred concerts with Theodore Thomas. After a time her health suffered under this strain and she played only in private concerts in New York. She has composed a number of pianopieces and some for orchestra, and has carefully edited pieces in her repertory. Her well-known pianopiece, On Blooming Meadows, has been scored for orchestra. She was a charter member of the American College of Musicians.