CHARBONNET-KELLERMAN, Alice

Alice Ellen Laurentine Charbonnet-Kellermann was a French-Australian pianist, composer, and music teacher who played an important role in the musical life of Sydney and Melbourne in the late nineteenth century. She was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, into a French-American family; her father, Benjamin Amable Charbonnet, served as a French judicial official in New Caledonia. She spent part of her youth in France and was admitted to the Paris Conservatoire in 1876, where she studied piano and harmony. Dame Nellie Melba Museum
Charbonnet travelled to Australia in 1878 and made her Sydney concert debut that April, advertised as “Mdlle. Alice Charbonnet of the Conservatoire of Paris.” Her performances quickly established her as a prominent pianist. She later worked in Melbourne, including as a music teacher, and taught the young Nellie Mitchell, later Dame Nellie Melba, piano and accompaniment. The University of Sydney
In 1882 she married the Australian violinist Frederick William Kellermann. Together they established a successful music school in Phillip Street, Sydney, where Charbonnet-Kellermann taught piano and participated actively in the city’s concert life. Their daughter Annette Kellermann later became internationally famous as a champion swimmer, aquatic performer, vaudeville artist, and film actress. Australian Dictionary of Biography
As a composer, Charbonnet-Kellermann wrote primarily piano pieces and salon music, as well as vocal and sacred works. Around ten compositions are currently known. One of her most substantial works is M’appari, a fantasy for piano left hand alone based on a theme from Friedrich von Flotow’s opera Martha. Other works include Saltarella in A minor (1892), Romance poétique, Op. 10, Le train du diable, Danse d’Arlequin, Brise de mer, Remembrance, Danse Mexicaine, and an Ave Maria for solo voice, violin, and piano or organ. OUP Academic
In 1901 she moved back to Melbourne and continued teaching, and in 1907 she left Australia for Paris. She remained musically active there; Australian newspapers reported that she was still giving concerts at the Salle Gaveau in 1914, only shortly before her death.