Fanny Hensel: From Keyboard to Quartet Lecture-Concert
From solo piano to string quartet —
hear a masterwork take new form
Discover how Fanny Hensel transformed her unfinished piano sonata in E-flat major into her magnificent string quartet. Learn about this remarkable composer’s life, works, and harmonic innovations. The lecture will include new research about Hensel’s musical allusions and the meaning of her works.
April 4, 2026, 12:00 noon
Berkeley Piano Club, 2724 Haste St
$20 tickets, limited seating
The lectures
Musical performances will be connected with interstitial talks on Fanny Hensel’s life, her unique harmonic language (which her brother Felix Mendelssohn described as “too much”!), and the origins and evolution of her string quartet.
Molly from Henselpushers will share new, never-before-presented original research on the meaning and musical allusions in Hensel’s virtually unknown piano sonata in E-flat.
The venue
Berkeley Piano Club
This historic venue is a beautiful, intimate concert hall built in 1912 by the Berkeley Piano Club, a women’s music club founded in 1893. It was designated a Berkeley Landmark in 2005
Don’t miss this rare performance
April 4, 2026 • 12 noon
Berkeley Piano Club
