Mme. Marcella Sembrich (Praxede Marcelline Kochanska) was born in
Wisnewczyk, Galicia, February 15, 1858. Sembrich was her mother's name.
Her father was a music teacher and she tells with pleasure how she
watched her father make a little violin for her to practice upon. At the
age of seven she was taken to Wilhelm Stengel at Lemberg for further
instruction. Later she went to study with the famous pedagogue, Julius
Epstein, at Vienna, who was amazed by the child's prodigious talent as a
pianist and as a violinist. He asked, "Is there anything else she can
do?" "Yes," replied Stengel, "I think she can sing." Sing she did; and
Epstein was not long in determining that she should follow the career of
the singer. Her other teachers were Victor Rokitansky, Richard Lewy and
G. B. Lamperti and a few months with the elder Francesco Lamperti. Her
debut was made in Athens in 1877, in _I Puritani_. Thereafter she toured
all of the European art centers with invariable success. Her first
American appearance was in 1883. She came again in 1898 and for years
sang with immense success in all parts of America. America has since
become her home, where she has devoted much time to teaching.
[Illustration: MME. MARCELLA SEMBRICH.
(C) Dupont.]