Teresa Milanollo

Teresa Milanollo was an Italian violinist and composer born on August 28, 1827 (Beethoven died that year.) However, she gave up her career after marrying French General Theodore Parmentier in 1857. She was thirty years old. She is one of those people who, were it not for someone else's fame, would be almost completely unknown - Rodolphe Kreutzer and Franz Clement come to mind. Though Teresa studied with De Beriot, famed violinist and pedagogue, and later went on to concertize, her fame now rests almost solely on the fact that she at one time owned the Stradivari violin (1728) which now bears her name - the Milanollo Strad. That violin, currently owned by Corey Cerovsek, was at one time played by Nicolo Paganini, and was bequeathed to her in Domenico Dragonetti's will. It was also played by Christian Ferras from 1964 onward.  Milanollo was known to be a very generous person.  It has been said that she paid for Henry Schradieck's studies at the Brussels Conservatory.  She died on October 25, 1904, at age 77.