Gabriele Speyer

Gabriele Mathilde Sander, later known as Gabriele Speyer and Gabriele Speyer-Sander, was born on 14 December 1897 in Cologne (Germany). She came from an educated and artistically inclined family. Her father was the lawyer and Justizrat Gustav Sander (1863–1928), while her mother, Klara Sander, née Loeser (1871–1958), had studied music and was also active in the German women’s reform movement. Gabriele had two younger siblings, Otto Sander (1898–1924) and Bertha Sander (1901–1990), the latter later becoming known as an interior designer.
Gabriele received her first piano lessons from her mother. She subsequently studied with the pianist and piano teacher Else Wirminghaus, who also taught her sister Bertha. After completing her school education, Gabriele studied piano at the Cologne Conservatory. She later moved to Berlin, where she studied singing with the famous soprano and pedagogue Lilli Lehmann.
Around 1925 Gabriele returned to Cologne. In 1927 she married the lawyer Dr. Walter Speyer and adopted his surname. From then on she appeared under the names Gabriele Speyer and Gabriele Speyer-Sander. She worked as a concert and Lieder singer, apparently as a soprano, and also as a singing teacher. She was regarded as an accomplished pianist as well.
After the National Socialist seizure of power in 1933, Jewish musicians were increasingly excluded from public musical life. Gabriele Speyer-Sander subsequently took part in the activities of the Jewish artistic community in Cologne and is documented there as a soprano. Her mother and her sister Bertha emigrated to Britain in 1936. Gabriele and her husband remained in Germany somewhat longer, but in 1938 they too left the country and emigrated to Great Britain.
In London Gabriele Speyer settled at 70 Carlton Hill in St John’s Wood. She continued and expanded her work as a singing teacher and established herself successfully as a vocal pedagogue. During the 1950s she advertised a “Training School for professional and amateur singers”, offering systematic vocal training to both aspiring professionals and amateurs. In British sources she occasionally appears under the anglicised form Gabrielle Speyer.
Besides her work as a singer, pianist, teacher and composer, Gabriele Speyer was also described as a talented painter. 
Gabriele Speyer died on 4 November 1969 in London (England).

In my possession are two autograph manuscripts of compositions by Gabriele Speyer. The two works are both songs for voice and piano. The first is titled "Fragment aus Goethe: Faust 1. Teil" and uses a text by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. It was finished on 27 March 1945. The second song is titled "Meeresleuchten" and uses a text by Friedrich Hebbel. This song was completed on 12 June 1945.