Wilhelmj, Maria, née Gastell

Singer (soprano)

born: 27.07.1851 in Mainz

died: 27.02.1930 in Wiesbaden

The daughter of the Mainz iron wagon manufacturer Otto and the singer Betty Gastell, she was trained as a pianist and singer by Joachim Raff and Pauline Viardot-García (1821-1910), among others. She married the lawyer Dr. Albert Wilhelmj (1844-1905), a son of the "wine king" August Wilhelm Wilhelmj, who later took over his father's wine shop in Wiesbaden and Hattenheim.

After initially singing mainly privately, her soprano role in Max Bruch's oratorio "Das Lied von der Glocke" in Wiesbaden in January 1886 marked the beginning of a regular collaboration with the Cäcilienverein, which made her an honorary member in 1889. In January 1889, she sang alongside Hermine Spies in Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy's "Elijah" in Wiesbaden, and in June 1891 she took part in the "Middle Rhine Music Festival" here. This festival included an excursion to the Niederwald monument, where Wilhelmj and Hermine Spies were celebrated as the "Middle Rhine nightingales". As early as March 1887, the press noted that Wilhelmj had quickly become a renowned soprano far beyond Wiesbaden.

On March 4, 1895, she sang the title role in "Iphigenie in Tauris - Dramatische Szenen für Soli, Chor und Orchester", a work by the French composer Théodore Gouvy (1819-1898). This was a great success for the singer and the Cäcilienverein, which was repeated in February 1896 with the "dramatic concert work" "Elektra" by the same composer. Gouvy, who had taken part in the rehearsals both times, was so taken with Wilhelmj that he composed another work of this kind, "Polyxena", for her. It was premiered in Frankfurt am Main in February 1898 and performed again in Wiesbaden in 1901.

In February 1903, Wilhelmj retired from public concert life, again with Bruch's "Lied von der Glocke". Her son Arthur (1874-1957) worked as an agricultural chemist, her daughter Elisabeth, married Boesneck, occasionally performed as a singer.

Wilhelmj was buried next to her husband in the Wilhelmj family grave in the North Cemetery.