User:Pontadiaz/Agnes Tschetschulin

Agnes Tschetschulin (24 February 1859 Helsinki –1942 Stockholm) was a Finnish violinist, composer and teacher.

Tschetschulin was born into a merchant family. The Russian born father, the titular commercial counsellor (kauppaneuvos) Feodor Tschetschulin, owned a steamboat and worked as a merchant. The mother Hilda (nee Eckstein) was from a Swedish family of merchants. The family included three more sisters: Mélanie, Eugénie ja the first-born Maria Tschetschulin, the first woman in the Nordic countries to attend university.

Agnes Tschetschulin first studied the violin with Gustav Niemann and continued at the newly founded Helsinki Music Institute with teachers Martin Wegelius and Anton Sitt, and with fellow student Jean Sibelius. She continued her studies for another six years at the Königliche Hochschule für Musik in Berlin with Ernst Joachim, Emanuel Wirth and Joseph Joachim. She was taught composition by Woldemar Bargiel and music history by Philipp Spitta. In 1891 Tschetschulin gave her first concerts in Berlin and Helsinki, where she performed her own compositions.

After her studies, Tschetschulin toured with Marie Soldat-Roeger as a second violinist in an all female string quartet. She then got a position at Cheltenham Ladies' College in England, where she served as professor of music and taught violin. For the last few years, Tschetschulin lived in Stockholm.

Tschetschulin's romanticly elegant compositions include chamber music pieces such as Gavotti, Valse gracieuse, Puszta Film and Alla Zingaresca. In addition to these, she wrote some songs as well as military marches, such as "Vöyrin poikien marssi" (the marsch of the boys from Vörå). Her compositions have been published by Swedish, German and English publishers.