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Celebrated German pianist, influential composer of the Romantic era, and dedicated pedagogue.Clara Schumann, born Clara Wieck in Leipzig, was a child prodigy rigorously trained by her father, Friedrich Wieck. She achieved international fame as a virtuoso pianist, performing for over six decades. A central figure in the Romantic movement, she premiered works by her husband Robert Schumann and close friend Johannes Brahms. After Robert's confinement and death, she became the primary breadwinner for their seven surviving children, maintaining an arduous concert schedule while editing Robert's works and teaching at the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt.

• Her father, Friedrich Wieck, vehemently opposed her marriage to Robert Schumann, leading to a bitter legal battle. Robert finally married Clara the day before her 21st birthday, when she was legally free of her father's control.
• She endured immense personal tragedy: Robert's mental illness led to his institutionalization in 1854 (where he died in 1856), and four of her eight children predeceased her.
• Her intense, lifelong friendship with Johannes Brahms began when she was 34 and he was 20, shortly before Robert's confinement. The nature of their relationship (deep friendship or unrequited love) remains a subject of speculation among scholars, though their mutual devotion is undisputed.
• She suffered from debilitating rheumatism and neuralgic pain for much of her later life. In her final years, she experienced strokes and increasing deafness, forcing her retirement from performing and teaching.
• She died from complications following a stroke in Frankfurt am Main, Germany.