1854–1937 · United States
Julie Rivé-King (1854–1937) was an American pianist and composer born in Cincinnati. She studied with William Mason in New York and later in Europe under Franz Liszt and Carl Reinecke. She gave concerts across the United States and later taught in Chicago. She wrote salon piano pieces, including variations on themes from the opera Carmen.
Julie Rivé came into the world on 30 October 1854 in Cincinnati, Ohio, the daughter of Caroline Staub Rivé and Léon Rivé. Her mother sang, taught and composed, having trained under Manuel Garcia in France; her father worked as an artist and teacher.
Before Julie was born the family lived in New Orleans, where a cholera epidemic took three of the children. The couple then moved to Baton Rouge, to Louisville and finally to Cincinnati, where they found teaching positions.
Her mother gave Julie her first music lessons, and by the age of eight she was playing in recitals. She also worked with Henry Andrès at the Cincinnati Conservatory.
She moved on to New York in 1870, where her teachers included Dionys Pruckner, Francis Korbay, William Mason and Sebastian Bach Mills.
She also studied in Europe, under Franz Liszt in Weimar, Adolf Blassmann in Dresden and Carl Reinecke in Leipzig.
In the mid-1870s Julie made her debut with the New York Philharmonic and then set out on her first concert tour of the United States. She played in the east of the country and in the Midwest.
She married her manager, Frank H. King, in 1876. Concert appearances continued, and alongside them she began composing and teaching.
Her husband died in 1900. Rivé-King then moved to Chicago and taught there, taking a position at the Bush Conservatory.
One of her pupils was Clara Baur, who founded the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music. Rivé-King died in Indianapolis in July 1937.
Rivé-King wrote salon piano pieces, among them concert variations on themes of Chopin and Vieuxtemps and of Bizet's opera Carmen. The site has her Carmen Fantasy ("Bizet - Carmen Fantasy").
The site collects six editions of Rivé-King's music for solo piano: "home", "meadows", "Bizet - Carmen Fantasy", "ballade-polonaise", "ballade-polonaise 2" and "scotland-caprice". All are marked with the level "Intermediate+".