Urso, Camilla

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Urso, Camilla

Urso, Camilla, esteemed French-American violinist; b. Nantes, June 13, 1842; d. N.Y., Jan. 20, 1902. Her father was an Italian musician and her mother a Portuguese singer. A child prodigy, she entered the Paris Cons, when she was seven, becoming the first girl ever accorded that distinction; she was a pupil there of Lambert Massart, winning 1stprizes in all subjects. On Oct. 29, 1852, she made her U.S. debut in N.Y. She appeared with Marietta Alboni, toured widely with the Germania Musical Soc, and gave concerts with Henriette Sontag. After withdrawing from public life (1855-63), she resumed her career with major tours of the U.S. and Europe; also toured Australia (1879, 1894) and South Africa (1895). In 1895 she retired and settled in N.Y. as a teacher.

Bibliography

C. Barnard, G: A Tale of a Violin, Being the Artist Life of C. U.(Boston, 1874).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire