Emmeline Woolley

Emmeline Mary Dogherty Woolley (1843 – 18 March 1908), commonly referred to as E. M. Woolley, was an English-born Australian pianist, organist and composer.

History

Woolley was born in Hereford, England, eldest of five daughters of Mary Margaret Woolley, née Turner (died 21 September 1886), and her husband John Woolley, who in 1850 was headmaster of King Edward VI Grammar School, Norwich. Blanche Mary Elizabeth Woolley (1845–1906), mother of Freda Du Faur, was a sister.

In 1851 her father was offered a position of inaugural Professor of Logic and Classics and Principal at the University of Sydney, and in 1852 the family emigrated to Sydney, where their five daughters were educated at home.
Woolley was a talented pianist but had little access to high culture in Sydney, so she was sent to Florence, where she became familiar with the masses of Palestrina, Pergolesi and Cherubini. She studied under Alessandro Kraus the Elder (1820–1904), Carlo Duccè (Ducci) and Pietro Romani (1791–1877), later with Julius von Kolb, from whom she learned much of Liszt's approach to composition and performance. After five years' absence she returned to Sydney.

In 1866 her father died in the sinking of the SS ''London'', leaving the family without a source of income. His friends and colleagues supported his widow with generous contributions, and she liquidated some valuable furniture. Woolley turned to teaching, which she preferred to the concert stage. She also served as organist to St John's Anglican Church, Darlinghurst, and coached the church choral society.
She did much to popularize the works of Grieg, also Gounod, Schubert, Spohr, Clara Schumann, Mann, Brahms, and Rubinstein.