MARIA THERESIA VON PARADIS - AUSTRIA
BORN 15 MAY
Maria Theresia Paradis was an Austrian musician and composer who lost her sight at an early age, and for whom Mozart may have written his Piano Concerto No. 18 in B-flat major.
Maria Theresia Paradis was the daughter of Joseph Anton Paradis, Imperial Secretary of Commerce and Court Councilor to the Empress Maria Theresa, for whom she was named. The Empress, however, was not her godmother, as was often believed. Between the ages of 2 and 5 she lost her eyesight. She received a broad education in the musical arts from: Carl Friberth (music theory and composition), Leopold Kozeluch (piano), Vincenzo Righini (singing), Antonio Salieri (singing and composition), Abbé Vogler (music theory and composition).
Paradis did not stay confined to Vienna. In 1783, she set out on an extended tour towards Paris and London, accompanied by her mother and librettist Johann Riedinger who invented a composition board for her. In August of that year they visited the Mozarts in Salzburg, though Nannerl's diary seems to place this meeting in September. She played in Frankfurt and other German cities, then Switzerland. Paradis finally reached Paris in March 1784. Her first concert there was given in April at the Concert Spirituel; the review in the Journal de Paris for it remarked: "…one must have heard her to form an idea of the touch, the precision, the fluency and vividness of her playing." In all she made a total of 14 appearances in Paris, to excellent reviews and acclaim. She also assisted in helping Valentin Haüy ("the father and apostle of the blind") establish the first school for the blind, which opened in 1785.
She traveled to London in late 1784, and performed over the next few months at court, Carlton House (the home of the Prince of Wales), and in the Professional Concerts at Hanover Square, among other places. During her tour of Europe, Paradis began composing solo music for piano as well as pieces for voice and keyboard. The earliest music attributed to her is often cited as a set of four piano sonatas from circa 1777.
By the year 1789, Paradis was spending more time with composition than performance, as shown by the fact that from 1789 to 1797 she composed five operas and three cantatas. After the failure of the opera Rinaldo und Alcinafrom 1797, she shifted her energy more and more to teaching. In 1808, she founded her own music school in Vienna, where she taught singing, piano and theory to young girls. A Sunday concert series at this school featured the work of her outstanding pupils. She continued to teach up until her death in 1824.
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MARIA LINDSAY BLISS - UK
BORN 15 MAY
Maria Lindsay Bliss was an English composer and songwriter. She was born in Wimbledon and married the Reverend John Worthington Bliss in 1858. She was one of the first women to achieve commercial success as an English songwriter in the 19th century, obtaining an exclusive contract with publisher Robert Cocks in London. She died in Betteshanger, Kent.
Lindsay composed sacred and popular songs, often using contemporary poetry as text.
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Hymn of the Moravian Nuns of Bethlehem by Maria Lindsay 
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