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Teresa Carreno, after her sensational début in Berlin, 18 November 1889, at the Singakademie, attained international fame in the 1890s as the world's supreme woman pianist. She was the second daughter of Manuel Antonio Carreno, author of the etiquette textbook adopted in 1855 as a government-imposed text in Venezuelan colegios and universidades, and Clorinda Garcia de Sena y Toro, niece of Simon Bolivar's wife and of one of his generals, Rodriguez Marqués del Toro.
With the aid of his superior family connections, Manuel Antonio Carreno rose from an appointed position as director of Crédito Publico and the Ministro de Hacienda, to director of the Banco de Venezuela (26 October 1861). A change of the political régime made it imperative in 1862 for him to leave Venezuela with another thirteen family members and attendants. Their expenses for departure on 23 July 1862, and for some initial months in the northeastern United States, were covered by grandmother Gertrudis del Toro's sale of property and income from the Manual's sales. Grandmother went with them but not Teresa's elder sister, Emilia, aged fifteen, who insisted on staying behind to marry her first cousin, Manuel Lorenzo Carreno. The record of Teresa's fabulous triumphs in New York, beginning with her début 25 November 1862, in Irving Hall, where she played five concerts through 15 December, and her first performance 2 January 1863 in Boston, where she immediately continued with another twelve sold-out appearances, has been rehearsed to satiety by all her biographers.
In Dwight 's Journal of Music, D wight began thus:
Little Miss Teresa Carreno is indeed a wonder. We do not care much for "prodigies", but this one did indeed interest me. A child of nine years, with fine head and face full of intelligence, rather Spanish-looking (she is from Caracas) runs upon the stage of the great Music Hall, has a funny deal of difficulty in getting herself upon the seat before the Grand Piano, runs her fingers over the keyboard like a virtuoso, and then plays you a difficult Nocturne by Doehler,1 with octave passages and all, not only clearly and correctly, but with true expression.
After a Gottschalk
little thing played as gracefully almost as he would . . . she plays a yet more...