BELLEVILLE, Anna De

Anna Caroline Oury (née de Belleville), also known as Ninette de Belleville, Ninette von Belleville or Ninette de Belleville-Oury (24 January 1806 – 22 July 1880), was a German pianist and composer of French ancestry. Anna Caroline de Belleville, often referred to as "Ninette", was born in Landshut, Bavaria, Germany. She studied with Carl Czerny in Vienna between 1816 and 1820, where she met Beethoven and heard him improvise. In 1829 she traveled to Warsaw where Chopin heard her play impressively enough for him to write about it in a letter, praising her "excellent" playing for its lightness and elegance. She wrote approximately 180 piano works.