Nannerl Mozart

Vocation

Family

Austrian musician, called Marianne and nicknamed "Nannerl", the older sister of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and daughter of Leopold and Anna Maria Mozart. When she was seven years old, her father started teaching her to play the harpsichord. Leopold took her and Wolfgang on tours of many cities, such as Vienna and Paris, to showcase their talents. In the early days, she sometimes received top billing, and she was noted as an excellent harpsichord player and fortepianist. However, given the views of her parents, prevalent in her society at the time, it became impossible as she grew older for her to continue her career any further. Wolfgang went on during the 1770s to many artistic triumphs while travelling in Italy with Leopold, but Marianne had to stay home in Salzburg with her mother. She likewise stayed home with Leopold when Wolfgang visited Paris and other cities (1777–1779) accompanied by his mother. There is evidence that Marianne wrote musical compositions, as there are letters from Wolfgang praising her work, but the voluminous correspondence of her father never mentions any of her compositions, and none have survived. Marianne married a magistrate, Johann Baptist Franz von Berchtold zu Sonnenburg (on 23 August 1783), and settled with him in St. Gilgen, a village in Austria about 29 km east of the Mozart family home in Salzburg. She bore three children: Leopold Alois Pantaleon (1785–1840), Jeanette (1789–1805) and Maria Babette (1790–1791). Marianne's husband died in 1801. She returned to Salzburg, accompanied by her two living children and four stepchildren, and worked as a music teacher. In her last years, Marianne's health declined, and she became blind in 1825. She died on 29 October 1829, at 78 years, in Salzburg. Link to Wikipedia biography