A widely published composer in her own time, Louise Farrenc was almost completely forgotten after her death. Farrenc was also a virtuoso pianist and an important educator, the only female full professor at the Conservatoire de Paris in the 19th century. Her chamber music, especially, was of remarkably high quality. The general rediscovery of music by women has benefited Farrenc's output, and many new recordings of her works have appeared in the 21st century. Farrenc was born Jeanne-Louise Dumont in Paris on May 31, 1804. Her father, Jacques-Edme Dumont, and her sister, August Dumont, were both sculptors. Farrenc studied as a child with Cecile Soria, who had been a student of Muzio Clementi, and after showing unusual talent, she was enrolled for lessons with two of the leading pianists of the day, Johann Nepomuk Hummel and Ignaz Moscheles. In 1819, her parents agreed to allow her to study with Antoine Reicha, a composition professor at the Conservatoire de Paris. Her lessons, however, were private as women were not officially permitted as Conservatoire students. She married flutist Aristide Farrenc in the 1820s, and the two toured together. Louise also toured widely as a solo pianist, gaining considerable fame in the 1830s. During this period, she composed mostly keyboard works, and several dozen of them were published. She had a daughter, Victorine, who became a pianist but died in 1857. Farrenc's efforts as a pianist and composer led to her appointment in 1842 as professor of piano at the Conservatoire, a post she would hold for the next 30 years. She composed a variety of chamber works, three symphonies, and several large choral pieces in the 1840s, and she wrote a book, Le trésor des pianistes, about the interpretation of early music; it was one of the first volumes ever written on the subject. Despite these accomplishments, Farrenc was paid less than her male counterparts. She asked for and received a raise after the premiere of her complex Nonet for string quartet and wind quintet, Op. 38, in 1849, in which the famed violinist Joseph Joachim participated. Farrenc unsuccessfully petitioned several major theaters to give her an opera libretto to set. She remained active into the 1870s, twice receiving the Prix Chartier of the Academie des Beaux-Arts in her later years. Farrenc died in Paris on September 15, 1875. More than 40 of her works, including the Nonet and all three of her symphonies, had been recorded by the mid-2020s, and her music was appearing on concert programs with increasing frequency. ~ James Manheim, Rovi