| Dorette Spohr | |
| Birth Date: | 2 December 1787 |
| Birth Place: | Kassel, Germany |
| Nationality: | German |
| Occupation: | harpist and pianist |
Dorette Spohr (2 December 1787 – 20 November 1834), also called Dorette Scheidler Spohr, was a German harpist and pianist active in the early 19th century.[1]
Dorette Spohr was born as Dorette Scheidler on 2 December 1787 in Kassel, Germany. Her father was a cellist and chamber musician from Gotha, and her mother was a singer. She learned harp from Johann Georg Heinrich Backofen, who was a harpist at the court of Gotha.[2]
In 1805, Scheidler met Louis Spohr, a concertmaster at the court of Gotha. They were married on 2 February 1806.[3] [4]
Spohr initially performed music composed by Backofen, but after her marriage, Louis Spohr composed for her.[5] Between June 1806 and October 1807, Spohr bought a harp from Paris using part of her dowry.[2] From 1810 to 1812, Spohr was principal harpist at the court of Gotha, where she taught the Duke's daughter, Princess Louise of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg.[2] Spohr and her husband toured Germany, Switzerland, and Russia, performing with a number of musical orchestras.
In 1820, after experiencing difficulties adapting to a new harp with a double-action pedal mechanism,[6] Spohr retired from playing harp. After her retirement, she became interested in piano.[7]
Spohr died in 1834 following a fever. Although she seems “not to have composed any music herself," Rensch says that "she inspired the composition of some of the first major ensemble music for harp and violin."